PRAMOEDYA ANANTA

TOER
Tuesday, 22 January 2009
INDO 1011
6 February 1925 -
30 April 2006

It is a pity that
power cannot
steal self-respect,
personal pride,
and everything
that lives in
people’s hearts.

www.etan.org

Never mind mass
murder, the smallest of
thefts is criminal, and all
of it can happen only
because of "kampung"
civilization and
www.etan.org/et2006/ images/00artc1.gif
culture, the social culture
and civilization of peoples
who are isolated, who feel
insecure and threatened
because of their own acts,
and for whom masks and
robes of holiness become
the uniform of a parade
fascinating enough to be
staged as a comic-book
drama.
 One can imagine how
awesome is the
task of dealing with all this
unfinished business in a work
of literature. Not to mirror or
reflect events, because the task
of literature is not to take
pictures, but to change
upstream realities to become a
literary reality, that will carry
its readers further forward
than the established order.

www.smh.com.au/ffximage/ 2006/04/30/pramoedya_...
History teaches much
about the power of
capital. Free peoples
are enslaved; artless
people are transformed
into compradores;
…the unemployed
become paid murderers
with uniforms and
badges of rank; vast
forests are torn apart by
infrastructure;
…cities and ports
spring up out of
nothing at its
command; labor force
is sucked in from all
over, even from remote
hamlets whose names
no one has ever clearly
heard.
…The governments of so
many states it turns into mere
instruments of its will; and
when they are no longer
wanted, they are overthrown.
This is a boring story, one that
is part of the experience of
many peoples in the world. It
is part of the experience of
each person who shares the
consequences, both the one
who profits from it and the
one who takes the loss.
….This is a boring story,
one that is part of the
experience of many
peoples in the world. It is
part of the experience of
each person who shares
the consequences, both the
one who profits from it
and the one who takes the
loss.
…And each experience
for a writer becomes
the foundation for the
creative process, no
matter whether the
experience is sensory
or spiritual.
 Pram with Ibu Maemunah

http://www.radix.net/~bardsley/pat1.jpg