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.