Abstract:
The freedom of writing in a democratic country is a common thing, but in some
countries writers are struggling to gain it. Writers in Indonesia experience such
struggle for a long time even until these recent years. The turning point happened in
1998 when the New Order under Soeharto regime was collapsed. Since then, the
reformation era in Indonesia brings multiple effects to its citizens. One big change is
the more freedom for Indonesian literary writers in expressing their ideas through
their works. Previously, Indonesian writers were really oppressed by the government.
They could not write freely, especially literary works with politics theme. This strict
policy is made to prevent the publication of books that suspected containing doctrines
or opinions assumed to against the government. Nowadays Indonesian government
seems to give more freedom to its writers, but to what extent? This essay presents
arguments whether modern Indonesian government should be more accepting of the
divergent political views of its writers? It argues that modern Indonesian government
should be more accepting of the divergent political views of its writers. The
disintegration versus democracy and then the literature with two-side influence will
be discussed in this essay.
