Silent Song reveals the making of a writer
Silent Song reveals the making of a writer
Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu 2, Catatan-catatan dari Pulau Buru
(The Silent Song of a Mute 2, Notes from Buru Island);
By Pramoedya Ananta Toer;
Lentera, Jakarta, February 1997;
xviii + 259 pp.;
Rp 30,000
JAKARTA (JP): The name Pramoedya evokes a fierce resistance to
oppression and a firm belief in humanity.
Noted literary critic HB Jassin once said in his collection of
letters: "... (Pramoedya's) Keluarga Gerilya (A Guerrilla's
Family) and Mereka yang dilumpuhkan (The Vanquished) (are)...
felt by the Indonesian people as voicing their own conscience and
their protest against the oppression and injustices practiced by
the colonial power."
Hard labor and torture during his exile on Buru island only
galvanized him, enabling him to keep aflame his spirit to live
and to write.
Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu (The Silent Song of a Mute), loose
notes and letters penned during his years on Buru and later
edited by a friend, Joesoef Isak, consists of two volumes. Book
I, published in 1995 to coincide with the writer's 70th birthday,
was banned shortly after its publication.
Ironically, outsiders could read the complete book as early as
1988, when its Dutch translation appeared in Holland.
The second volume, published here in February 1997, started to
circulate only early this year when the winds of reform began to
blow across the country.
The first volume contains harrowing stories of how political
prisoners accused of involvement in the failed coup attempt by
the Indonesian Communist Party on Sept. 30, 1965, spent their
exile on Buru, an island in the Maluku archipelago. This second
volume, by contrast, deals with Pramoedya's reflection on his
genealogy, his early life as a budding writer, his two marriages
and his hopes for his children.
But he is a controversial figure: well-known writers like
Taufik Ismail and Mochtar Lubis constantly remind the young
generation of the paradox of Pramoedya's struggle for humanity.
Pramoedya was active in Lekra, the cultural affiliate of the
Indonesian Communist Party. Senior writers recall his
authoritative ways when he himself was in power, as found in a
1995 book, Prahara Budaya: Kilas Balik Ofensif Lekra/PKI dkk.
(Cultural Storm: Flashback of the Offensives of Lekra/PKI cs.).
The bitterness in the literary world here continues as
Pramoedya, a recipient of international awards for literature,
has never acknowledged or apologized for his deeds against his
colleagues.
Pramoedya's version of his ways are gradually revealed in the
book, which shows how he was tempered by experiences in his early
years.
Pramoedya was born in Blora, East Java, on Feb. 6, 1925 as the
eldest child. His father, who actively opposed Dutch colonial
rule through education, was the principal of a local private
school run by Boedi Oetomo, an organization seeking educational
improvement for local people.
The elder Toer hated feudalism so much that he dropped the
word Mas -- a Javanese title denoting a lower rank of nobility --
from his name, leaving only Toer.
Pramoedya remembers his father as a man of principle. He
writes that upon his mother's death his father sent him a letter
saying that he would never remarry. The couple had pledged that
in the case of death of one of them, the survivor could remarry
only if permission had been acquired from the deceased.
His mother, 11 years younger than his father and one of his
former students, was born to a feudalistic family. Though
confined largely to household chores, she liked reading
practically anything and could always find a story for her
children.
"Sometimes she told stories in the evening, surrounded by her
children. ...Sometimes ...lying down while breast-feeding her
baby. She could tell a chain of stories for several nights."
These stories, local and foreign, which Pramoedya got
acquainted with early in life, must have contributed to shaping
his future as a writer.
It was also thanks to these stories, which "aroused beautiful
fantasies", that young Pramoedya was introduced to local
nationalist leaders of the time and also world-renowned figures
like Gandhi.
Attitude
Pramoedya's hard attitude to life must have stemmed from his
father's stern behavior.
"Every afternoon... (he would) teach me arithmetics,
Javanese, Dutch, geography, conversation... and all ended with
tears. Of course he never laid a hand on me, but his seldom-heard
voice, his smile, rarer still, and his burning eyes were all the
more horrifying to me than the giants in a shadow puppet show."
Nevertheless, his father found the time to give his eldest son
some words of advice, words summing up what Pramoedya has been
doing all his life -- struggle.
"When you watch a shadow puppet show, or hear a shadow puppet
story, or read the story yourself, what you'll find is but a
battle. Never forget to find the battle. To forget this is... an
error. In a battle, whoever is right will be the winner."
In 1942, shortly after his mother died, Pramoedya left Blora
for Jakarta. During most of the Japanese occupation in Indonesia
(1942-1945), he worked in a news agency, Domei, and got to know
several people who would later become important figures in
independent Indonesia, such as Adam Malik and Mohammad Yamin. He
also took courses to improve himself and became acquainted with
writers like Sanusi Pane and Asrul Sani.
In a letter to one of his daughters, Pramoedya dwells on his
marriages. His first marriage in 1950 lasted only five years
apparently owing to his financial weakness. He left his house
with only his clothes, a motorcycle and his typewriter.
But his wife's words of separation kept ringing in his ears:
"No other woman could bear living with you for five years."
Later he married Maemunah, the niece of M.H. Thamrin, a
national leader.
He recounts: "In my first year of detention I suggested that
she remarry because she was still young and pretty. Ten years is
not a short time."
She stayed well over five years: Maemunah remains his wife
until today.
-- Lie Hua
The reviewer teaches at the Department of English, School of
Letters, at the private National University.