Sitor: A politician inside a poet

Sitor: A politician inside a poet

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There are many facets to Sitor Situmorang's character. Sitor the
poet, known for his musings of home in the landscape of faraway
France. Sitor the journalist, cultural observer and politician,
whose views would cause him to spend time in jail. And Sitor the
man, whose mystical upbringing in the traditional Batak culture
would haunt his adult life.

Without writing a book, it would be impossible to tell the
full tale of Sitor's remarkable life. Indeed, Sitor is very like
an animated history book himself -- full of memories of times
gone past, but with none of the tedium. On reading such a book
one would have no choice but to be swept away by the passion of
its narrative.

Sitor's own life has been so closely intermingled with the
building of this nation that it would be impossible to relate one
without mentioning the other.

Sitor was born to a long line of Batak leaders, well-known for
their resistance to Dutch invaders. In fact, national hero
Sisingamangaraja XII was Sitor's own uncle. He was born on Oct.
2, 1924, in Harianboho, a small village in a valley west of Danau
Toba, North Sumatra.

Sisingamangaraja and Sitor's father, Ompu Babiat of the
Situmorang clan, claimed to have been directly descended from
Sumba and Lontung, the ancestors of all Batak people.

"So I was descended from the Adam and Eve of the Batak people,
and besides that, I was also born in the valley of Mount Pusuk
Buhit, which, according to Batak mythology, is the center of the
universe," the father of seven children and eight grandchildren
said in an interview recently.

Little Sitor was in awe of his father, the authority figure of
Harianboho as well as a cultural leader, but Sitor claimed never
to have never been afraid of him.

"I wasn't close (to my father). It wasn't possible in his
position. A cultural leader is expected to be the 'father' to
everybody, not only his immediate family," he said, adding that
Ompu Babiat had always been shrouded in a veil of mystery and
mystique, particularly because of the rituals of his ancient
beliefs.

But no matter how traditional he was, Ompu Babiat never forced
his family to be the same. Instead, his nine children --
particularly his six boys -- received the best education the
Dutch had to offer at the time.

"We were privileged, the family of a ruler. We always had
enough; good nutrition and every kind of education available at
the time was open to us. We didn't need to fight to get in; our
status ensured that we would," Sitor said.

Sitor left home for his education from the time he was seven
years old. First to Balige, south of Danau Toba, to attend a
Dutch elementary school, then to Sibolga in 1936 to finish two
years of elementary school and attend the colonial junior high
school, Mulo. Japanese occupation in 1942 forced him to drop out
of the Dutch AMS senior high school in Batavia (Jakarta), and
return to Sibolga.

Sitor admitted always to have had a penchant for politics,
saying that his family may have had something to do with this
interest: "After all, eight generations of my family have always
been active leaders in society. So I grew up hearing every story,
tales of good and bad, linked with what they now call politics".

Living in Sibolga, a busy port town, also helped cultivate
this interest -- his Malayan language improving through contacts
with the multicultural society -- Sitor wolfed down every
nationalist newspaper available, including the Dutch-language
magazine Nationale Commentaren.

"My interest in politics was high. I thought that the closest
to being a politician was to be a journalist," Sitor said. In
1945, just after the proclamation of independence, Sitor became
editor for Suara Nasional, a small newspaper in Sibolga.

But Sibolga could not contain Sitor's craving for being in the
middle of the nationalist movement. In 1947 he moved to a larger
publication, Waspada, in Medan, with the simmering desire to go
where it all happened, Batavia. He would later work for Berita
Nasional and Warta Dunia dailies in Jakarta.

Upon reflection, Sitor said that his news writing had already
been infused with the "breath" of literature.

"People now say that my articles were like literary stories,
when I had no intention of writing literature," he said, laughing
heartily.

As for poetry, Sitor could not explain why he chose that
particular form of expression: "It's a gift!" he simply
said. Sitor's first try at literature was his private translation
into Batak of the love story between Saijah and Adinda in
Multatuli's novel Max Havelaar in 1943.

Being a journalist at the time of the nationalist movement,
one could not but help become deeply involved in the movement
itself, and that was what Sitor did. He found his voice for the
political passion that ran in his blood in the articles, essays,
and editorials he wrote.

"Every word or sentence felt as though it had a direct link to
the struggle in society, the passion and exhilaration of
creation, fulfilling one's basic need, satisfying the people's
thirst for news, conceptions leading to aspirations of
independence, as a mental weapon directed towards the enemy, the
Dutch invaders," Sitor wrote in his autobiography Sitor
Situmorang seorang sastrawan 45 penyair Danau Toba (Sitor
Situmorang a (Generation of 19)45 literary poet from Danau Toba)
published in 1981 by Penerbit Sinar Harapan.

As part of his work, Sitor got to cover important events of
the time -- such as the 1947 Federale Conferentie in Bandung --
where he exposed himself to the idealistic ideas of prominent
figures of the time, and befriended intellectuals and artists.

In the words of Henk M.J. Maier, in his introduction to
Sitor's collection of poetry,To Love, To Wander, translated and
published by The Lontar Foundation, Jakarta: "Feeling close to
those vociferous intellectuals and artists who had stormed the
stage, he managed to become acquainted with some of them -- and
before long was accepted into their circle".

Sitor also had very definite views about his political
leaning, and with absolute confidence he defined himself as a
nationalist.

"Of course there are many kind of nationalist: What kind of a
nationalist am I? Well I can make my own definition. My
nationalism doesn't depend on whether or not PNI exists," said
Sitor, a prominent member of the Sukarnoist Indonesian
Nationalist Party in the 1960s.

His perspective on Indonesia's national culture was in
agreement with the views of Taman Siswa and its founder Ki Hajar
Dewantara.

"Sometimes people are confused with what is Indonesian
culture: They think (the various cultures that exist) have to be
drained together, molded into one. That's all nonsense. Just
because you're a nationalist you shouldn't be forced to leave all
your Javanese traditions behind," he said.

Sitor's answer to globalization was to strengthen
understanding of one's own culture and address the new
"globalized" culture through the sieve of one's own existing
culture.

"That's how you can be creative. We cannot build a nation's
culture simply by being a copycat of whatever influence comes
along," he said.

Sitor was fiercely Sukarnoist, and for this he believed he was
jailed for nine years of his life, between 1966 and 1975 in
Salemba, after which he was placed under house arrest between
1975 and 1976, and under city arrest until 1977.

"They never served my detention papers on me; I never knew why
I was jailed. And they only interrogated me once."

The only clue about his sentence was the questions asked
during interrogation, which had been about his Sukarnoist views.

After completing his sentence, Sitor left for Paris where he
lived until the Soeharto regime was toppled.

Life has taken Sitor through thick and thin, but he is said
never to have harbored any feelings of vengeance, even over his
unexplained jail sentence.

Instead, Sitor firmly believed that his belief in the truth
was what helped him through these years.

"I am a person who has faith in what is the truth, and I am
ready to face the challenges to this faith."