Singaporean neurologist pays tribute to noted writer 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 and the unpublished Termites, as well as their kindred passion for the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore.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