Call to lift ban on Pramoedya's work
According to an August 23 Jakarta Post report, 70 leading Indonesian authors and artists have asked the government to lift its ban on the publication of the works of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, whose novels have made him the most renowned Indonesian writer internationally.
Pramoedya's tetralogy of novels, starting with This Earth of Mankind, has been published in English by Penguin Books and in the US by William Morrow.
The Indonesian writers, invited to dialogue with minister of education and culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, stated that the lifting of the ban would be consistent with recent government declarations that it wanted to create a more open political climate.
Among those taking part were a number of very prominent literary and artistic figures of the New Order period, including publisher Mochtar Lubis whose own paper is also banned, novelist and social commentator Y.B. Mangunwijaya, and the publisher of Tempo magazine, Goenawan Mohamad.
Pramoedya was released in 1979 after 14 years of internment at Salemba Prison in Jakarta and on Buru Island prison camp. He has continued writing since becoming a free man, but his books are summarily banned in Indonesia though published abroad.
Right-wing writer Ayip Rosidi commented: "Pramoedya was once involved in the PKI [Indonesian Communist Party], but I am sure he does not want to spread communist ideology as many have assumed. We should no longer be afraid of communism as it no longer has a place in society."
Goenawan Mohamad said the best way to promote creativity was by eliminating the ban on Pramoedya's work and on the work of other artists.
Wardiman responded by stating that there was no such thing as unlimited freedom. In the case of the arts, this limit exists but remains invisible, he said, noting that authors have a tendency to push it to the limits.
The government, in banning Pramoedya's books, said they could encourage people to rebel because some of the dialogues in his novels took the form of agitation and propaganda.
The minister was also questioned over the banning of an art exhibition in Surabaya dedicated to Marsinah, a labour activist who was murdered in May after leading an industrial strike at the watch-making factory where she worked. [From TAPOL via Pegasus.]