![]() ![]() It provided indirectly for the genesis what is unarguably the summary of his life’s work, The Buru Quartet. ![]() It could have ended there one of the many left-leaning intellectuals “disappeared” in the chaotic aftermath of the 1965 troubles that followed the ouster of Sukarno in that year. But the more grievous loss was that of his manuscripts - the product of years of labour vanished and burnt in one night. Whether Pram was a communist never became clear he nonetheless became a victim of the bloodiest purge in Indonesian history.The blows he took from soldiers meant to be escorting him away from an angry mob left him with impaired hearing, a condition that deteriorated as the years went by. Many came under suspicion - including communists and their sympathisers. But the event that proved the turning point was the alleged coup attempt against President Sukarno in October 1965. For his writing and social commentary, he suffered imprisonment, first by the Dutch and then by successive Indonesian governments beginning in 1960. ![]() In his last years, and indeed, since his final release from prison in 1979, Pramoedya - or Pram, as he was fondly known to friends - held court in his home near Jakarta, venting his spleen on successive administrations, the state of his country and what he saw as the slow sliding away of his beloved Indonesia, from the aspirations of its founders. Pramoedya Ananta Toer did not recede into benevolent old age nor fade gently away. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |