Mochtar Lubis, The Crusading Journalist

Known for his exposés of government corruption and inefficiency, the legendary Indonesian editor Mochtar Lubis was jailed by two presidents while his newspaper, the daily Indonesia Raya, was banned six times. “Unable to report except accurately or to comment except honestly, he was bound to get into trouble with the despot Sukarno and the autocrat Suharto,” said author and journalist Robert Elegant.

Lubis was first imprisoned in December 1956. As a result of strong protests by the International Press Institute (IPI) among others, he was transferred to house arrest in January 1957. However, he was neither charged nor set free until April 1961. That year, he was given a hero’s welcome at the IPI General Assembly in Tel Aviv, where he attacked Sukarno’s treatment of the press in a courageous speech.

On returning to Jakarta from Tel Aviv, Lubis was promptly arrested and jailed. From a military prison in Madiun, hundreds of kilometers from his Jakarta home, Lubis smuggled out occasional letters, some of which were printed in IPI Report. After nine years in prison, he wrote: “I am a stubborn old fool and am fully convinced that our era is the era of human freedom and human cooperation and not the era of human enslavement and inevitable confrontation. ... But only a truly free press can help build up traditions of freedom, the respect of law, for public rights, for private rights, to fight against the abuse of power, against corruption — moral and material.”

Lubis was freed after nearly 10 years in jail following the overthrow of Sukarno. After his release, he revived Indonesia Raya in 1968 and resumed his role in pointing out government corruption. Lubis was soon to be in trouble again — this time for exposing corruption in the new government and among President Suharto’s family members. Along with many other publications, Indonesia Raya was closed down for good after the riots that accompanied the 1974 visit to Indonesia by the Prime Minister of Japan, Kakuei Tanaka. A year later, in February 1975, Lubis was again arrested. After weeks of interrogation by the military, he was imprisoned on charges of sedition for allegedly having mobilized students to demonstrate against the Japanese prime minister’s visit. The international press came forcefully to his defense, and he was released after two and a half months in prison on Apr. 15.

Mochtar Lubis was born on Mar. 7, 1922. Before taking over the editorship of Indonesia Raya in 1952, he worked as foreign affairs editor of the Indonesian National News Agency, Antara, from 1945 to 1952, and published the first English-language newspaper in Indonesia, the Times of Indonesia, in 1952. In 1966, he founded a cultural and literary monthly, Horison. A former member of the IPI Executive Board and chairman of IPI’s National Committee in Indonesia, he is also a renowned novelist, poet and essayist.

Lubis’s courage during the Sukarno and Suharto years became a byword in Asia and wherever the press was under attack. He was long ignored by the self-censoring media in his own country because of his firm belief that universal human rights should not be superseded by the notions of unity and nation-building. However, he is today regarded by his countrymen as the doyen of the Indonesian press and a symbol of courageous and independent journalism.

:: source: http://www.globaljournalist.org/archive/Magazine/Lubis-20002q.htm

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Mochtar Loebis, Indonesian Journalist and Novelist

By any measure, Mochtar Lubis was impressive. A mostly self-educated Mandailinger, he was tall, handsome, urbane, and articulate in several languages. Always controversial, Mochtar was one of Indonesia's most respected journalists and best-known authors for over four decades.
His uncompromising journalistic style, his several substantial periods of political detention, his considerable literary skills and his extensive international connections, all earned him a colourful reputation, at home and abroad. He was an extremely deft 'cultural broker', explaining Indonesia to the West, and interpreting Western ideas for his own community.

Born in Padang in 1922, Mochtar was best known as the crusading editor of Indonesia Raya (Glorious Indonesia) daily newspaper, a publication with combative - even 'muck-racking' - journalism, dedicated to the exposure of corruption and government malfeasance.

From its establishment in December 1949, Indonesia Raya became embroiled in the divisive politics of the 1950s. In confrontations between the army and the civilian government, Mochtar and Indonesia Raya were often critical of President Sukarno. Critics accused them of serving those military and pro-US interests that were uncomfortable with Sukarno's non-aligned policies. Mochtar and his staff vehemently denied such claims.

Detentions

Frequent criticisms of Sukarno and his ministers led to Mochtar being detained without trial in 1956. Indonesia Raya closed under pressure two years later. Mochtar spent most of the remainder of Sukarno's presidency in detention, becoming Indonesia's best-known political prisoner internationally for most of this period.

Released in 1966, Mochtar revived Indonesia Raya only to have it banned by Suharto after anti-government riots in January 1974. He was imprisoned for yet another year. In his clashes with authorities, Mochtar dismissed pleas from colleagues to tone down his criticisms in order to be allowed to re-open Indonesia Raya. He argued that the press must be fearless in its criticism of those in power; it must accept banning rather than compromise.
He was accused of being politically naïve, unable to negotiate that fine line trod by savvy Indonesian editors as they struggled to maintain their publications and the livelihoods of their employees despite often-overwhelming constraints on political expression.

But Mochtar's forthright, combative spirit made him heroic to many. Younger journalists in particular admired the simple clarity of his analysis and his preparedness to speak out.

An international voice

Despite the demise of Indonesia Raya, he remained an editor at heart, active internationally in the International Press Institute and the Press Foundation of Asia. For 36 years he edited Indonesia's leading monthly literary magazine, Horison, founded in 1966 on the initiative of young anti-Sukarnoist activists.

As a measure of his international standing, he was appointed to the UNESCO Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (1977-9). This made Mochtar, at that stage, one of only four Indonesians to have been appointed to such UN commissions.

At home, he maintained his feisty opposition to the prevailing political authorities through support for various non-government organisations, such as the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, and the environment movement. Yet he also became a life member of the establishment's most prestigious and exclusive intellectual and cultural body, the Jakarta Academy.

During his periods of detention Mochtar still wrote energetically, producing a string of novels, short stories and children's tales as well as some poems, diary accounts and biographical sketches, garnering a string of awards.

Literary achievements

In 1958, while under house arrest, he was the first Indonesian (and remains one of only three) to be given the prestigious Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature. His strong anti-leftist views led him to return the Magsaysay Award in protest in 1996 when leftist author Pramoedya Ananta Toer received the honour.

Most highly regarded of his literary works was his novel Jalan Tak Ada Ujung (Road with No End), which explored fear and courage during the Indonesian revolution, and for which he won a national Literary Award in 1952.

But what sealed his reputation internationally was his pillorying of the self-interested politics of Sukarno's Indonesia in Senja di Jakarta (Twilight in Jakarta). This was the first Indonesian novel ever translated into English.

Most touching perhaps remains his 1959 short story, Kuli Kontrak (Contract Coolies). This is an account of a childhood experience secretly witnessing his father, a Dutch-appointed administrator, overseeing the whipping of indentured labourers in the local prison.

Tragically Alzheimer's disease stole Mochtar's memory during his final years. Yet when he passed away in Jakarta on 2 July 2004, aged 82, his moral courage, revered journalistic principles and literary achievements left an enduring legacy.

*David Hill (dthill@murdoch.edu.au) is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at ,Murdoch University, and a biographer of Mochtar Lubis

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