Pramoedya

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia's leading novelist, was jailed for 14 years under Suharto's New Order. Before the June elections, he reflects on Indonesian politics and writer's block. If you ask Pramoedya Ananta Toer what has changed in Indonesia since the end of the Suharto dictatorship last May, he gives a bleak answer. “Nothing,” says Indonesia’s most acclaimed novelist and one of its finest historians. “This is just a continuation of Suharto’s New Order. It’s just the New New Order.” On the face of it, this is a surprising thing to say. Since the riots last year in Jakarta, which left 1,200 dead, Suharto himself has lived in seclusion in his compound in Menteng. But outside, his New Order appears to be unravelling.