Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006)

To catch up a little bit since my injury, I read about the death of Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, an outspoken democracy advocate who overcame imprisonment and censorship to publish dozens of stories and novels about his country. He died on Sunday, April 30, at the age of 81. Pramoedya to me is more than a writer, he's a hero and defender of human rights and civil rights. He has dedicated his whole life to his country through literary work. He was jailed under successive regimes, first in 1947, when he was accused of being anti-colonialist. In 1965, he was again imprisoned for sympathizing the Chinese communists.

Pramoedya's left-leaning, outspoken style in literature earned him enemies within Suharto's regime and his works were banned from circulation. He was thrown in a cell without trial, first off the coast of mainland Java, and then in the penal colony of Buru, along with thousands of other opponents of the U.S.-backed regime. He advocated the removal of bureaucrats and politicians "tainted" by Suharto-era abuses, but corruption remains rampant and some of the old dictator's cronies remain in office.

The most important series of work, The Buru Quartet, consists of four novels focusing on one main character who is based on historical figure. The protagonist, Minke, is a Native Javanese, a raden mas or noble who has received a Western education. In This Earth of Mankind he marries Annelies, the daughter of a Javanese concubine and a Dutch factory owner. When her father dies, she becomes the legal property of her Dutch relatives and is taken to the Netherlands, her Islamic marriage having no standing. In Child of All Nations Minke's real political awakening begins. He starts to write in Malay rather than Dutch, he follows events in Japan and China and in the Philippines, and he experiences firsthand the effects of sugar farming and the exploitation of his own people. These two volumes were originally spoken, in a prison camp where Pramoedya was denied access to writing materials.

In the third novel Footsteps Minke moves to Betawi (Jakarta) to study at medical school, though he soon abandons that as a career. He marries a second time, to a Chinese activist, and enters into public political life, founding the first Native organization and launching a newspaper. This is set against the background of the Dutch conquest of Bali. The last installment, The House of Glass is narrated by Pangemanann, a Western educated Native who has risen in the service of the government. He chronicles his manipulation, surveillance, and terrorization of the various opposition movements and leaders, Minke among them. Though Minke's memoirs has ended in the third novel, the last volume is significant under historical context because it is a moral condemnation of colonialism. The novels become progressively heavier with historical and political exposition as the political awakening of Minke dawns.

Buru Quartet is a perfect example of a bildungsroman, the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. For Minke it is the search for meaningful existence within an oppressive, corrupted society. The maturing process of his political sense is long, arduous, and gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between the his needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order.