![]() ![]() ![]() Here in Australia, the Inside Indonesia magazine is planning a special issue around Pramoedya. ![]() Those who had received news of his death via text messages and could get there, did so.Īlready there are plans in Indonesia for activities to commemorate Pramoedya's life and work. Indonesian custom requires that burial takes place as quickly as possible after death, Pramoedya was buried later in the afternoon. On the third day at home, after pushing aside the tubes and equipment that got in his way, he asked for another of his beloved kretek cigarettes. Finally he asked to go home, to stay in the family house in the Jakarta suburb of Utan Kayu. He had been taken to the emergency ward of a major Jakarta hospital and was then moved to an intensive care unit. The acclaimed author and democracy campaigner had died that morning after suffering a week or more of declining health. They sang the Internationale and they sang that most moving of all songs that grew up during the struggle against the 1966-98 Suharto military dictatorship: Darah joang ("Blood of the struggle"). But they rallied their spirits to also sing songs of struggle to farewell the man who they had just laid to rest: Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Scores of activists and young writers, as well as family members, were at the Karet Bivak cemetery in central Jakarta on April 30. ![]()
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