Mochtar Lubis
{{Short description|Indonesian journalist and novelist}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mochtar Lubis
| image = Mochtar Lubis (1979).jpg
| caption = Lubis in 1979
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1922|3|7}}
| birth_place = {{nowrap|Padang, Dutch East Indies}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2004|7|2|1922|3|7}}
| death_place = Jakarta, Indonesia
| spouse =
| citizenship = Indonesian
| awards = {{Unbulleted list|Ramon Magsaysay Award (1958, shared with Robert Dick), World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award, (1967)}}
| footnotes =
}}
Mochtar Lubis ({{IPA|id|moxˈtar luˈbɪs|}}; 7 March 1922 – 2 July 2004) was an Indonesian journalist and novelist who co-founded Indonesia Raya and monthly literary magazine Horison. His novel Senja di Jakarta (Twilight in Jakarta in English) was the first Indonesian novel to be translated into English. He was a critic of Sukarno and was imprisoned by him, as well as by Suharto on several later occasions. He held strong anti-leftist views and was seen by critics as aligned with Indonesian National Armed Forces and pro-U.S forces that were opposed to Sukarno’s non-aligned policies, a charge that he himself denied.{{cite web
|last = Hill
|first = David
|title = Mochtar Lubis
|publisher = Inside Indonesia
|date = 1 July 2005
|url = http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit83/p23_hill.html
|access-date = 10 July 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081123075636/http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit83/p23_hill.html
|archive-date = 23 November 2008
|df = dmy-all
}}
Biography
Mochtar Lubis was born on 7 March 1922 in Sungai Penuh, Kerinci Regency, on Sumatra, to Raja Pandapotan Lubis, a high-ranking civil servant, and his wife.{{cite web |url=http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/04/04/a-fresh-look-legacy-mochtar-lubis.html |title=A Fresh look at the legacy of Mochtar Lubis |author=Her Suheryanto |date=4 April 2010 |publisher=The Jakarta Post |access-date=9 July 2011}} He was the sixth child of twelve.{{cite web |url=https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2004/08/16/loyal-outspoken-loved-mochtar039s-friends-remember.html|title=Loyal, outspoken, loved: Mochtar's friends remember|author=A. Junaidi|date=16 August 2004 |publisher=The Jakarta Post |access-date=9 July 2011}} {{subscription required}}
As a child, he wrote children's stories which were published in Sinar Deli, a Medan-based newspaper. When he was an adolescent, he often trekked into the jungles of Sumatra. He later wrote that two events during this period, seeing a well-built yet abandoned hut and having a close call with a tiger, served partly as his inspiration for Harimau! Harimau! (Tiger!, Tiger!){{harvnb|Lubis|Lamoureux|1991|p=vii}}
After graduating from high school, he worked as a teacher in Nias, North Sumatra. However, after a year he left for Batavia, where he worked at a bank. When World War II broke out and the Japanese occupied Indonesia in 1942, Lubis began working for the Japanese, translating international news for the Japanese army.
File:Mochtar Lubis Kesusastraan Modern Indonesia p216.jpg
After Indonesia declared its independence in 1945, Lubis joined the Indonesian news agency Antara as a reporter. With Antara, he covered the Asian Relations Conference in 1947. During this same period he wrote Jalan Tak Ada Ujung (The Road Has no End) and joined the Indonesian Visual Artists Association.
In 1949, he cofounded Indonesia Raya, later serving as the daily's chief editor. His work there led to him being imprisoned numerous times for his critical writing, including in Madiun, East Java, from 1957 to 1966.{{cite web |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121011202057/https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2004/07/03/press-freedom-fighter-writer-mochtar-lubis-passes-away.html |archive-date =11 October 2012 |url=https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2004/07/03/press-freedom-fighter-writer-mochtar-lubis-passes-away.html|title=Press freedom fighter, writer Mochtar Lubis passes away |author=A. Junaidi|date=3 July 2004 |publisher=The Jakarta Post |access-date=9 July 2011}} In 1955, while he was editor there, he hosted the African American author Richard Wright during his three weeks in Indonesia to attend the Bandung Conference. Indonesia Raya published several articles related to Wright during April and May 1955.{{Cite book|title = Indonesian Notebook: A Sourcebook on Richard Wright and the Bandung Conference|last = Roberts and Foulcher|publisher = Duke University Press|year = 2016|pages = 67–88}}
On 4 February 1975, he was arrested in relation to the 1974 riots during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka; Indonesia Raya was also shut down not long after the riots due to their reporting of the Pertamina corruption scandal. He spent over two months in Nirbaya prison without trial and was released on 14 April 1975. He noted that other prisoners, such as former Indonesian Air Force chief Omar Dani, had been imprisoned without trial for years. During his time there, he became an avid practitioner of yoga.
He founded and co-founded numerous magazines and foundations, including the Obor Indonesia Foundation in 1970, Horison magazine, and the Indonesian Green Foundation. He was also outspoken about the need for freedom of the press in Indonesia and gained a reputation as an honest, no-nonsense reporter. In 1996, due to his anti-leftist stances, he returned the Magsaysay Award in protest when leftist author Pramoedya Ananta Toer received it. In 2000, he was named as one of the International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years.{{cite web |url=http://www.freemedia.at/awards/world-press-freedom-heroes/ |title=World Press Freedom Heroes: Symbols of courage in global journalism |year=2012 |publisher=International Press Institute |access-date=26 January 2012}}
After a long struggle against Alzheimer's disease he died in {{ill|Medistra Hospital|id|Rumah Sakit Medistra}} on 2 July 2004 at age 82.{{cite web |url=https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2004/07/04/press-freedom-champion-mochtar-039only-feared-his-juliet039.html|title=Press freedom champion Mochtar 'only feared for his Juliet' |date=4 July 2004|publisher=The Jakarta Post |access-date=9 July 2011}} He was buried next to his wife in Jeruk Purut Cemetery.{{cite web |url=http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/09/21/the-irrepressible-and-intimate-mochtar-lubis.html|title=The irrepressible and intimate Mochtar Lubis|author=Warief Djajanto Basorie|date=9 September 2008|publisher=The Jakarta Post |access-date=9 July 2011}} His funeral was attended by hundreds, including journalists and writers Rosihan Anwar and {{ill|Ramadhan K.H.|id}}.
He was married to Siti Halimah, who died in 2001. Together they had three children, who produced eight grandchildren.
Awards
In 1958, Lubis shared the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts with Robert Dick, a publisher.{{cite web
| title = The Ramon Magsaysay Awardees by Category – Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts
| publisher = Ramon Magsaysay Award
| url = http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/category-JLCCA.htm
| access-date = 10 July 2008
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080531043548/http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/category-JLCCA.htm
| archive-date = 31 May 2008
| url-status = dead
}}
Lubis's novel Harimau! Harimau! was named Best Book by Yayasan Buku Utama, a part of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, in 1975,{{harvnb|Mahayana|Sofyan|Dian|2007|p=243}} and received an award from Yayasan Jaya Raya (parent organization of the publisher {{ill|Pustaka Jaya|id}}) in 1979.{{harvnb|Eneste|2001|p=61}}
Works
=Novels=
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title in English ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |
|---|
| 1950
|Tidak Ada EsokLubis, Mochtar. Harimau! Harimau! Eighth printing. 2008. Yayasan Obor Indonesia: Jakarta. Pp. 213–214. {{ISBN|978-979-461-109-8}}.(Taken from the "About the Author" section) (In Indonesian) |There is No Tomorrow | |
| 1952
|The Never-ending Road |Received an award from the Badan Musyawarah Kebudayaan Nasional |
| 1963
|Twilight in Jakarta |Originally published in English; published in Malay in 1964. |
| 1966
|Tanah Gersang |Barren Land | |
| 1975
|Tiger! Tiger! |
| 1977
|Maut dan Cinta |Death and Love |
=Short story collections=
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|last1=Eneste|first1=Pamusuk|title=Bibliografi Sastra Indonesia|trans-title=Bibliography of Indonesian Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6hApcTtOsQMC&q=%22harimau%21+Harimau%21%22+&pg=PR5|year=2001|isbn=979-9375-17-7|location=Magelang, Indonesia|publisher=Yayasan Indonesiatera|language=id}}
- {{cite book |title=Tiger! |last1=Lubis |first1=Mochtar |last2=Lamoureux|first2=Florence|year=1991 |publisher=Select Books |location=Singapore |isbn=981-00-2265-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5VkAAAAMAAJ&q=Florence+Lamoureux+Tiger!}}
- {{cite book|last1=Mahayana|first1=Maman S.|last2=Sofyan|first2=Oyon|last3=Dian|first3=Achmad|title=Ringkasan dan ulasan novel Indonesia modern|trans-title=Summaries and Commentary on Modern Indonesian Novels|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq8caP8yvqwC&q=harimau%21+Harimau%21&pg=PR9|year=2007|publisher=Grasindo|isbn=9789790250062|language=id}}
{{Ramon Magsaysay Award Winners}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubis, Mochtar}}
Category:People of Batak descent
Category:Indonesian male novelists
Category:20th-century Indonesian novelists
Category:Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Category:Indonesian male short story writers
Category:Indonesian short story writers
Category:20th-century short story writers