Namaku Pram: Showing the Writer’s Blessings in Disguise

Photo credit: Dia.Lo.Gue Art Space Kemang

Born in Blora in 1925, Pramoedya Ananta Toer was a pure Javanese who dedicated his life and mind to Indonesia. His writings which are full of cold criticisms toward the governments and the Javanese feudalism – which based on his thought was the thing that hold back the Javanese from modern development – made his writings were banned for public consumption and also resulted him to spend half of his life isolated in some rural islands. He was no person of a luck, he had gone through a couple of isolations and desperations before he could publish his phenomenal novels and writings which eventually made the eyes of the world turned to him and made him be acknowledged as the most thoughtful author that Indonesia has ever had.

The life of Pramoedya Ananta Toer was coming in the form of notes, archives and letters which were frankly displayed on the Namaku Pram: the Notes and Archives exhibition held at Dia.Lo.Gue Art Space Kemang, South Jakarta from April 17^th to May 20^th 2018. Being supported by Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation, the exhibition represented the image of Pramoedya as an author and documentator of Indonesia’s history.

Walking through the gate of Dia.Lo.Gue Art Space, the visitors were brought back through time and space to the preliminary time of Pramoedya. The visitors were then showed a long timeline stretched from the gate to the end of the wall of exhibition’s first room which narrated the long story of Pramoedya Ananta Toer from 1925 all the way to 2006, the time when he met his end. Strains of Javanese traditional music accompanied the readings of the timeline and the sightings of the archives, which made the situation in the room more melancholy than it was already had. The timeline started from the moment he was born, spent his primary education in Sekolah Institut Boedi Utomo in Blora (Institute School of Boedi Utomo), until the time when Michigan University of America granted him with an award for his creations.

Garden of Words in Namaku Pram exhibition. Left: quote from "Panggil Aku Kartini Saja" written: We are deserve to not be a foolish. Right: quote from one of Pramoedya's notes

Even though he was not the brightest during his school periods, Pramoedya was passionate and had great willingness to study and to learn new things. He was an observer. After finishing his primary school, he continued to higher education which was his initial step to observe things and to write. Pramoedya was even serving as the second lieutenant in Cikampek (Central Jakarta) in Regiment 6 not long after Indonesia’s independence. Just 2 years after Indonesia being independent, in 1947 Pramoedya was accused for keeping confidential archives of  the Netherlands and was arrested by the Dutch who came to Indonesia and intended to conquer Indonesia for the second time (like 350 years weren’t enough, well we all know after WW II everyone wanted to support their economic resilience and power). Pramoedya then was kept isolated in Pulau Edam and Bukit Duri until 1949. Being isolated was not stopping Pramoedya to write and to read, he spent his time behind bars outpouring his opinions and ideas and not long after he was released, he started sending his writings to local paper who then published them. Well, the only thing to keep Pramoedya isolated was taking pens and papers away from him, which actually been done by Indonesia government during his arrest in Pulau Buru which will be explained later in this article.

Long story short, Pramoedya was actively writing in 1950 and as time went by, his writings got richer over cold criticisms and scathing questions to the government, marking his effort in forming the government’s order in that era. Moreover, Pramoedya’s opinion and way of sounding his mind were not the stuffs that were easily accepted by the people in those era. What made things worse at that time was Pramoedya’s participation as the leader of LEKRA (Lembaga Kesenian Jakarta, the Art Agency of Jakarta) which was managed by the communist party of Indonesia, Partai Komunis Indonesia, led by D.N. Aidit. His participation in LEKRA made him think differently than the other artists at that time. By 1965, the government took enough of his critics and participation in LEKRA that they arrested him, put him behind bars without trial until 1969 and disposed him to Pulau Buru until 1979. In those years, when he was regarded as the shame of Indonesia, he pioneered his most phenomenal creation, Bumi Manusia (the Mankind of the Earth); the beginning of Tetralogy of Buru Islands.

Namaku Pram Exhibition was filled by the notes written by Pramoedya which were the basis of his creation and the letters he exchanged with his family during his isolation in Pulau Buru. Being displayed unscathed and unchanged, these things brought the emotion in visitors’ heart to surface due to their explicitness and innocence. The show windows in the central of the first room kept the clippings derived from newspapers and archives full of Pram’s notes which were gathered by him to write his books. The windows were also keeping the books he finished but never made to publication or even if they were published, were then burned to ashes by the government.

The replica of Pramoedya's work room in his house in Bojong Gede, West Java

The exhibition was divided into 3 (three) rooms; while the first room showed the notes, archives and books of Pramoedya, the second room gave a space for paintings of Minke (the main character of the Tetralogy of Buru Islands) and of Pramoedya himself which were made by various painters. There was also a replica of Pramoedya’s work room from his house in Bojong Gede, West Java, just in the corner of the second room. Couple of quotes and opinions written on long white fabrics in Taman Kata (Garden of Words) marked the last room of Namaku Pram: The Notes and Archives exhibition in Dia.Lo.Gue Art Space and closed the not-so-long, yet influencing journey of the exhibition.

"An educated person must learn to act justly, beginning, first of all, with his thoughts, then later in his deeds. That is what it means to be educated" - Pramoedya Ananta Toer in the Mankind of the Earth