No Southeast Asian writer has ever won the Nobel Prize for Literature but none has come closer than Pramoedya Ananta Toer. This is an introduction to his life.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006) is remembered as the leading modern Indonesian novelist and one of the great artists of contemporary Southeast Asia. His reputation rests largely on the so-called Buru tetralogy, a series of four books written during his lengthy imprisonment on the Buru Islands, together with two historical works. The first of these has recently been posted as Arok of Java and it begins the epic saga of Indonesian history with which Pramoedya (‘Pram’) was most concerned.
Pram was born into the Dutch East Indies – a colonial state which existed primarily to extract resources from one country for their enjoyment by the people of another country. He became a man at the time of the outset of the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, which was a period of considerable ambivalence for those nationalists across the region who sought the removal of the Europeans. At first, the Japanese seemed to be saviours – Asians as well and an inspiration for others. Yet, in time, Japanese misrule (in part caused by the lack of resources) complicated the issue. The betrayal of a revolution born in innocence became an important theme in Pram’s works.
Dutch attempts to re-assert control over Indonesia were strongly resisted in wars that claimed the lives of many thousands. When independence was finally achieved, it appeared to be a wonderful opportunity for a people to forge a state in their own image, creating norms and laws based on their tradition and culture. The autocratic rules of Soeharto and Sukarno appeared to many to be betrayals of this past and of the sacrifices so many had made to achieve freedom. In representing this tendency, which manifested itself in a variety of different ways, Pram was among those who were repeatedly persecuted by authorities. Monolithic political elites can accept no alternative to their rule or their ideology and this makes writers and scholars such as Pram dangerous to them. Countless thousands were rounded up on suspicion of subversion or other supposed crimes and held in detention or internal exile, without charge and without a fixed term of detention. It is greatly to Pram’s credit that he was able to focus his vision on the understanding of the lives of ordinary people rather than turning against the injustices imposed upon him and others. He remained committed to the securing of personal freedom for individuals, which he held still to be consistent with rule by properly authorized officials. This was expressed not just in his novels but also in plays and in numerous newspaper essays and books of collected non-fiction pieces. His name was discussed in connection with the Nobel Prize for Literature on many occasions but no Southeast Asian has yet to reach this level of prominence.
