Ratna to stage 'Marsinah Menggugat'

Ratna to stage 'Marsinah Menggugat'

JAKARTA (JP): Playwright Ratna Sarumpaet plans to stage
Marsinah Menggugat (Marsinah Accuses) at Universitas Nasional,
South Jakarta tomorrow at 8 p.m.

According to a 1995 government decree, no permits are needed
to stage art performances, but Marsinah Menggugat was banned late
last year in Surabaya, Lampung and Bandung.

Based on a case about labor activist Marsinah who was raped
and murdered in 1993, the play has evaded banning in Taman Ismail
Marzuki arts center (TIM) in Central Jakarta.

Ratna, 49, told The Jakarta Post that a recent statement by
National Police chief Gen. Dibyo Widodo confirmed that
investigations on the case had been postponed indefinitely.

Ratna's play, one of a number items on the students' agenda at
the university, will accompany demands to reopen the Marsinah
case.

"Students are going to make demands for the resuming of
investigations for the Marsinah case and the 14-year-old Tanjung
Priok case," in which survivors of riots that took place in
Tanjung Priok claim that some 400 died.

Ratna, who is also founder of the prodemocracy alliance
Solidaritas Indonesia Untuk Amien dan Mega (the Indonesian
Solidarity for Amien Rais and Megawati Soekarnoputri) also wrote
the plays Marsinah, Nyanyian dari Bawah Tanah (Marsinah, A Song
from Underground), Terpasung (Chained) and Pesta Terakhir (The
Last Party). (ylt)