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)