Twilight in Djakarta (1963) by Mochtar Lubis, an Indonesian’s Letter to His Failing Country

GABY RUSLI WRITES (in a series of reviews on Indonesian classics) — Corruption. Collusion. Nepotism. The hypocrisy of the wealthy. All odds are stacked against the poor. These are some of the authentic and intriguing themes in Mochtar Lubis’ third novel, Twilight in Djakarta (1963). Lubis’ story challenges an autocratic leader and government which controls a country freshly freed from hundreds of years of colonialism and dealing with the ingrained separation of race and class. Twilight in Djakarta tells the intertwining stories of several characters from the upper, middle, and lower classes of Indonesian society over six months. The upper-class revels in their expensive cars and extensive connections, seeking out ways to be wealthier while the poor struggle to fulfill their needs, and the middle class remain in a state of economic limbo, making do but never achieving complete comfort. This book is Lubis’ critique of Soekarno, Indonesia’s first president after its independence under the Dutch and the Japanese occupations, where bureaucratic corruption was rampant at the expense of a starving majority.