Political Prisoner 007: A Story about a Friend

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

PRAMOEDYA Ananta Toer passed away at the age of 81. We had often heard the story of his life like an epic. Part of his work was done when he was a prisoner at Buru Island. It had been a long journey, starting as a prisoner wearing a uniform with the numbers 007 written on it, and ending as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pram was part of a big wave: 13,000 prisoners who were transported to Buru Island in 1969 and returned in 1979. Buru is the third largest island in the Province of Maluku. The prison camps covered one-third of the island. The large camp was originally known as Tefaat Buruan acronym for Tempat Pemanfaatan Buru or Buru Utilization Place.

In this edition, our staff made great efforts to record the observations of Prams friends on Buru Island: how were This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and The Glass House produced in such a limited environment? How was he able to maintain his will to live? How the stubborn Pram had many weaknesses: pretentious, was often aware of his mistakes but was slow to apologize

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THEY talked about a person, also about a period in the past long ago.

Oey Hay Djoen came to the Tempo office last Wednesday, supported by a cane. He is now 77 years old. But his voice is still loud and clear, and his memory of the past is also lucid. Oey was an activist of the Peoples Culture Institute (Lekra) as well as a member of parliament and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). He was quarantined from 1969 to 1979 at Buru Island. He lived a

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