Writer Umar Kayam dead at 69
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Glaring sun could not hide the grief felt by hundreds of friends and relatives at the Karet Bivak cemetery in Central Jakarta who came to pay their last respects to one of the country's most prolific writers Umar Kayam who passed away early on Saturday morning due to intestinal bleeding and a liver disorder.
The prominent writer, novelist, columnist, academician, actor and most of all, an educator, is survived by his wife Roosliana Hanoum, and two daughters, Sita Aripurnami and Wulan Anggraeni.
Born on April 30, 1932, from a long line of teachers, he stayed true to this path until his retirement from the Gadjah Mada University School of Letters in 1997. But even after he retired, Umar could never resist the urge to debate about Indonesia's education system.
His impressive career included becoming head of the Jakarta Arts Council, Rector of the Jakarta Arts Institute (1969-1972) and Director General of Radio, TV and Film (RTF) at the then information ministry between 1966 and 1969.
But the Cornell University graduate did not stay long at the ministry. He told The Jakarta Post in 1999, shortly after recovering from a mild stroke, that when he proposed to the government to model electronic media after the BBC and become independent, he was fired.
He even tried a career in movies when he played Indonesia's first president Sukarno in the 1980s' film The Treachery of the Indonesian Communist Party/September 30 Movement.
His Seribu Kunang-kunang di Manhattan (A Thousand Fireflies in Manhattan) was named best short story by Horison cultural magazine in 1968.
His other noted works include Sri Sumarah dan Bawuk (Sri Sumarah and Bawuk, the names of two female heroines; 1975) -- two short stories which revolve around the 1965 attempted coup d'etat, its terrifying aftermath and the lives of those families affected by it; academic literature Seni, Tradisi, dan Masyarakat (Art, Tradition and the Community; 1981).
His weekly columns from the local newspaper Kedaulatan Rakyat Yogyakarta were compiled into the trilogy Mangan Ora Mangan Kumpul (Sticking Together Through Thick and Thin), Sugih Tanpa Banda (Rich without Riches), and Madhep Ngalor Sugih-Madhep Ngidul Sugih (Rich However You Look at It).
Asked which he preferred, teaching or research, the man who felt unimpressed by much of today's literary criticism told the Post that, "The one thing I like most is writing. Writing short stories and novels.
"I write every day, but I don't have any routine; it's whenever I choose. I'm not that kind of writer. That is the way of a government worker or a bureaucrat. Writers write whenever they please."
Umar's latest works include Para Priyayi (The Javanese Elite) series, of which the Jalan Menikung: Para Priyayi 2 (Crooked Road: the Elite 2) was published in 1999.
He wrote all of his stories with a conventional typewriter, and Umar once remarked that, "it's only a matter of (eating) with a spoon or with your hands, isn't it better like this (eating with the hands)".