'The Year of Living Dangerously' author returns after 34 years
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For the first time in 34 years, Australian author Christopher John Koch, better known as CJ Koch, returned to Indonesia, the setting of his 1978 best-selling novel The Year of Living Dangerously.
Arriving on Thursday, the 70-year-old author will be here until next Tuesday, to take part in a fundraising event arranged by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondent's Club in a program called The Harry Burton Memorial Scholarship for local journalists.
The program is aimed at commemorating the death of Burton, a Tasmanian (Australia) cameraman who worked in many parts of Indonesia for two years, before being killed in Afghanistan last November.
The scholarship will be awarded to a television journalist or a camera person for a one-month journalism course arranged by University of Indonesia and an international Non Governmental Organization.
The first prize was given last month to cameraman Erawan Deny Nugroho from LNG TV Bontang in East Kalimantan.
As for Koch, he was invited by the Club due to his particular novel and another work entitled Highways to a War which touched the lives of foreign journalists covering Southeast Asian countries.
The latter novel is based on the career of Tasmanian cameraman Neil Davis who apparently was Burton's role model.
"I knew Neil in high school, back in Tasmania. I didn't know Harry, but as a Tasmanian, the tragic death of Harry makes me sad. He is a very special man. I've read about his career and his respect for Neil. So there's a connection between us," Koch told reporters on Friday morning, prior to a charity gala at the Hotel Mandarin in Central Jakarta.
Besides the fundraising, Koch is in town to for The Year of Living Dangerously book signing at QB World Books on Jl. Sunda in Central Jakarta on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
The event is important as the novel has long been "unofficially" banned here as it plays out against the backdrop of political strife in Indonesia in 1965.
The story tells about Australian journalist Guy Hamilton, who was thrust into a hotbed of political turmoil and the alleged coup attempt by the now extinct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in President Sukarno's last days as the leader.
Later on, the movie -- produced in 1983 with the same title and which Koch co-wrote the screenplay -- was also banned here.
The Year of Living Dangerously was directed by Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society) and starred a dashing young Mel Gibson as Hamilton, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt.
"The book, as far as I know has never been officially banned. But I don't think it's ever distributed here. As for the movie, I can understand why it was banned as there was a part where civilians were being shot by police. While it never happened during the coup," Koch said.
At the book signing, Koch will be accompanied by his brother Philip, a retired ABC reporter who helped a great deal in writing the novel as he was here in 1965, covering the historical events that led to Soeharto becoming president.