Singaporean neurologist pays tribute to Mochtar Lubis

Singaporean neurologist pays tribute to Mochtar Lubis

Noted journalist and writer Mochtar Lubis, who passed away on
July 2, was not only admired by many at home, but also abroad,
including a Singaporean neurosurgeon.

James C.M. Khoo of Mt. Elizabeth Medical Center in the island-
state, a physician to Mochtar and his wife Halimah who passed
away three years ago, sent a letter to The Jakarta Post recently
to share his memories of close friend Mochtar.

Khoo recalled discussions they had over the author's books,
such as A Short History of Indonesia, Harimau! Harimau! (Tiger!
Tiger!) and the unpublished Termites, as well as their kindred
passion for the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore.

When he paid a visit to Mochtar two years ago at his home on
Jl. Bonang, Central Jakarta, however, Khoo found that Mochtar
"could hardly recall my name".

Khoo dedicated the following stanzas from Tagore's Gitanjali
in remembrance of a man who made it "his life's work fighting
against military dictatorship, religious and racial intolerance,
corruption and other injustices", a man who sacrificed himself
"for the love of his country".

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving reaches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought
and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
-- JP