Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia

A peoples' poet: Wiji Thukul
 

Warning if the people leave while rulers deliver speeches we must watch out perhaps they have lost hope if the people hide away and whisper when discussing their problems then rulers should beware and learn to listen if the people don't dare complain then things are dangerous and if the rulers' talk may not be rejected truth must surely be under threat and if suggestions are refused without consideration voices silenced, criticisms banned without reason accused of subversion and disturbing security then there is only one word: resist! Solo, 1986

My neighbour next door my neighbour next door can make very good flutes from bamboo and can play many tunes my neighbour next door often borrows the guitar to sing with his children one of his ears is ruined struck with a rifle butt my neighbour next door lives as if behind fortress walls always watching checking for danger my neighbour next door was terrorised before Kalangan-solo, November 1991

Old man his skin brown burnt by the city sun his cheeks charred swept by hot winds his energy sucked away on the highway earlier father is snoring now and as tomorrow morning looms in my mind that double decker bus suddenly changes to become a great fish and the trishaws are like sardines helpless Solo, June 1987   Say your words if you are not willing to ask you will be drowned in decisions if you withhold your words your mouth cannot pronounce your desires robbed you will be treated like a stone thrown away, discarded or plucked out like grass or open mouthed can be filled with whatever taking no role in anything if you no longer dare ask you will be the victim of decisions do not imprison your pronouncements if we enslave ourselves to fear we will lengthen the line of slavery Kemasan-Kentingan-Sorogenen

Kampung/Village as morning breaks the rubbish piles up children scolded by mothers husband and wife shouting as morning breaks the rubbish piles up left and right arguments children crying husband wife fighting in turn with the radio people push and shove to get to the public well then teenage girls leave the kampung for the factories returning in the aftternoon eyes wrinkled with exhaustion living lives of no choices and children are born one after the other not knowing their house stands on the edge of drains playing in front a heap of rubbish behind walls in and around narrow lanes around and around in shadows looking for some open space Solo - Sorogenen, July 1988

Wiji Thukul, son of a trishaw driver and himself a former carpenter's assistant, is a member of the PRD central council and head of Jaker. In 1995 he was awarded the Netherlands Wertheim award for his poetry. Following the 1996 crack-down on the PRD Wiji along with three other members went missing. A reliable source within the military has now admitted privately that Wiji was killed by the military.