October 22, 2013 edition

The fate of Trubus Sudarsono, one of former president Sukarno's favorite artists, remains unknown. Born in Wates, Yogyakarta, on April 24, 1924, Trubus was known in the 1960s as a talented painter and a figure in the Lekra cultural organization. Trubus also got involved in politics as a member of the Yogyakarta Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), representing the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Trubus, whose first job was preparing food for carriage-pulling horses, traveled abroad often in his later life. He lived in Praha, Czechoslovakia, for one month. While in Eastern Europe, he visited museums, ceramics factories, places where stone and bronze statues were made and art training centers. He also studied how the state subsidized art activities.
After the political upheaval of 1965, the year General Suharto seized power from Sukarno, it was said Trubus had been caught by the military while in hiding on the slopes of Mount Merapi. He had been carrying a Behring radio to monitor the situation. It's not known what happened to him after that. Was he executed, shot and killed? Perhaps he was imprisoned first? But where? Or did he he go free, and choose not to return to public life? His family continues to search for him. His children believe he is still alive. This is Tempo's report.

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More Intermezzo articles in other editions

September 10, 2013 edition

Nicolaus Driyarkara (1913-1967) is an important name in the field of philosophy in Indonesia. But the man himself is little known. The people who would know him are mostly limited to leaders of the Catholic church, those in the field of education, and a smattering of intellectuals. This is probably because Driyarkara was a Jesuit priest, a teacher and a philosopher, who once taught at the Sanata Dharma Institute of Higher Learning for Teachers in Yogyakarta. But his contributionsparticularly in the fields of education and humanistic thoughtlive on in the name of the Driyarkara School of Philosophy in Jakarta.

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