Support to Pramoedya

The letter of protest signed on July 29, 1995 by 26 Indonesian intellectuals, against the awarding of the Magsaysay literature prize to Pramoedya Ananta Toer, will be deeply disappointing to the readers of Indonesian literature around the world.

Internationally, Pramoedya is not just Indonesia's, but indeed Southeast Asia's, most celebrated author. He is the most translated and most widely read Indonesian novelist. In world literature, Pramoedya is Indonesia's representative. He has been nominated many times for the Nobel Prize for Literature and many of us hope that he will, one day, bring the first Nobel award to Indonesia.

The judgment of 26 people, whatever their position in contemporary Indonesia, will not alter the place that Pramoedya already occupies in world literature. In that context, it is deeply regrettable that some literary figures in his own country are unable to share the glory that Pramoedya brings to this nation, and by extension, to all of Asia.

It appears that the position of the 26 signatories is not widely shared in the Indonesian intellectual community. Significantly, the list does not include any prominent intellectuals of the younger generation. Nor does it include some of the most respected cultural figures of New Order Indonesia, such as Arief Budiman and Goenawan Mohamad.

It is possible that, by continuing to judge Pramoedya by a particular interpretation of LEKRA (the People's Cultural Institute -- leaned heavily toward communism in the early 1960s) politics of 1959 to 1965, the 26 signatories represent an increasingly anachronistic position, which is irrelevant to Indonesia's future in a global cultural community.

No one remembers the Soviet critics of Solzhenitsyn. So too, with or without the Magsaysay award, Indonesia will continue to be seen in world literature largely through Pramoedya's work, long after the current political issues are forgotten.

KRISHNA SEN

GEORGE ADITJONDRO

DAVID HILL

VEDI HADIZ