Thu, 24 Aug 1995

Writer Pramoedya eligible for travel abroad: Oetojo

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman assured yesterday that the government has not banned writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer from traveling to Manila to accept his Magsaysay award later this month.

Oetojo said that the prolific "leftist" writer is free to travel abroad because so far there has been no requests from any government agencies for immigration authorities to bar him.

"The Directorate General of Immigration has not received any requests or orders from authorized institutions to issue travel bans on Pramoedya until today," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Pramoedya's wife Maemunah said yesterday that she would leave for Manila to represent her husband in receiving the prestigious award.

"I have formally been invited by the (Magsaysay) Foundation to leave for Manila on Aug. 29," she told The Jakarta Post by phone last night.

She said that she and her husband applied for passports a week ago but only her passport application had been approved by the Directorate General of Immigration, while her husband's had not.

"I knew that I obtained the passport only on Tuesday," she said.

According to the immigration laws, requests to bar someone from traveling abroad should come only from either the minister of justice, the minister of finance, the attorney general or chief of the Armed Forces.

Pramoedya was an activist of Lekra, a cultural group linked to the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party blamed for the 1965 bloody abortive coup. He was imprisoned at the Salemba detention center in Jakarta from 1965 to 1969 and later sent to Buru island in Maluku for a 10-year sentence of hard labor until 1979.

Pramoedya has been named by the Magsaysay Foundation as one of this year's recipients of an award. He won the award for his contribution to journalism, literature, and creative communication arts.

The other recipients are Morihiro Hiramatsu of Japan for Government Service, Asma Jahangir of Pakistan for Public Service, and Ho Ming-Teh of Taiwan for Community Leadership.

The Magsaysay Foundation's decision to present the award to Pramoedya was met with mixed reactions from Indonesian intellectuals. Last week, 26 intellectuals criticized the foundation, arguing that in the past Pramoedya suppressed freedom of expression.

The foundation, named after a famous Philippine president, however insisted on continuing with its plan to present the 70- year-old Pramoedya with the award at the end of this month.

"Current attacks on Pramoedya bear little moral weight in light of the penalties already imposed upon him as well as a change in world attitudes toward communism accompanying the end of the Cold War," the foundation said.

The foundation also rejected the calls of Mochtar Lubis, the first Indonesian recipient of the same award category, and his colleagues.(imn)