Jejak Langkah (Tetralogi Buru, #3)
As the world moves into the twentieth century, Minke, one of the few European-educated Javanese, optimistically starts a new life in a new town: Betawi. With his enrollment in medical school and the opportunity to meet new people, there is every reason to believe that he can leave behind the tragedies of the past. But Minke can no more escape his past than he can escape his situation as part of an oppressed people under a foreign power. As his world begins to fall apart, Minke draws a small but fervent group around him to fight back against colonial exploitation. During the struggle, Minke finds love, friendship, and betrayal - with tragic consequences. And he goes from wanting to understand his world to wanting to change it. Pramoedya's full literary genius is again evident in the remarkable characters that populate the novel - and in his depiction of a people's painful emergence from colonial domination and the shackles of tradition. It is no wonder that Carolyn See, writing in The Washington Post Book World, commented, "Pramoedya Ananta Toer should get the Nobel Prize, but failing that, where are the miniseries people? This story is spellbinding." The Buru tetralogy was composed orally on Buru Island during the first half of the author's fourteen-year imprisonment without trial. Writing or reading anything but religious texts was strictly forbidden. Pramoedya would tell each installment to the people with whom he shared his hut; they in turn would tell others until the thousands of political prisoners held on Buru knew the story. In the latter half of his imprisonment, Pramoedya was allowed to write the novels he had composed orally
Saya: Buku ini dipinjamkan oleh kekasih saya, yang dia pinjam dari sebuah perpustakaan yang berbaik hati. Saya merasa sangat senang sampai-sampai langsung membacanya hingga subuh dan membuat sebuah catatan pinggir, semacam BEDAH ATAS BUKU INI. Sebab saya membaca banyak kata dan bahasa yang kuno, tidak digunakan lagi dan terkesan melayu abis.
I'm finished with Jejak Langkah: Akhirnya Minke pun ditahan oleh Belanda. Pangemanann datang ke rumahnya di Bogor. Sang Putri "ditalak" dan entah bagaimana nasib "Medan" dan organisasi Pribumi.
Lutfi: Aku nggak ngerti kenapa buku ini heboh banget. menurutku biasa aja.
Weni: Jika pada buku sebelumnya, Anak Semua Bangsa, Minke mulai mengenal kehidupan rakyat Hindia yang tertindas oleh kekuasaan kolonial, maka buku Jejak Langkah menceritakan perjuangan Minke mempelopori gerakan nasional melalui organisasi modern dan surat kabar.
Pada tahun 1906, Minke mendirikan Syarikat Prijaji bersama Thamrin Mohammad Thabrie, dua tahun sebelum berdirinya Boedi Oetomo (BO). Tahun 1909 Minke menggagas berdirinya Syarikat Dagang Islamijah (SDI), juga bersama Thamrin Mohammad Thabrie, yang semakin hari anggotanya semakin banyak dan merambah ke seluruh pulau Jawa.
Pada tahun 1907 Minke menerbitkan surat kabar pribumi yang pertama, bernama 'Medan'. Kantor redaksinya berada di Jl. Naripan no. 1, Bandung. Dalam mengelola suratkabarnya, Minke dibantu oleh (antara lain) Marko, Sandiman, Hendrik serta istri ketiga Minke, Prinses van Kasiruta, yang berasal dari Maluku. 'Medan' yang tirasnya terus meningkat menjadi tempat mengadu para pribumi lemah yang tertindas dan terdiskriminasi oleh hukum. Apa2 yang disuarakan Minke lewat pers menyebabkan ia dinilai berbahaya oleh pemerintah Hindia Belanda.
Di akhir cerita, Minke ditangkap di saat dia telah bersiap2 untuk pergi berpropaganda bagi SDI (sampai ke luar Hindia). Pdhl ia telah menyerahkan pengelolaan 'Medan' kepada orang2 kepercayaannya dan telah menyerahkan tampuk Pimpinan Pusat SDI kepada Hadji Samadi (ketua Cabang Solo).
Itu kata buku :D Lalu siapa Minke dalam Tetralogi Buru ini? Nama aslinya memang tidak pernah diungkapkan dalam 3 buku pertama. Tapi di Jejak Langkah disebutkan inisial Minke dalam menulis berita: TAS. Meskipun saya sudah tau dari teman saya yang merekomendasikan tetralogi ini, saya mencari juga di internet :D Minke alias TAS adalah RM Tirto Adhi Soerjo, bapak pers nasional yang baru diangkat menjadi pahlawan nasional pada November 2006. Seperti pada buku, th 1906 ia mendirikan Syarikat Prijaji, th 1907 menerbitkan koran Medan Prijaji dan th 1909 mendirikan Syarikat Dagang Islam. Tulisan2 mengenai Tirto Adhi Soerjo bertebaran di internet. Untuk lebih lengkapnya, silakan googling :D
Thamrin Mohammad Thabrie adalah Thamrin Mohammad Thabrie, seorang Wedana Batavia, ayah dari Mohammad Husni Thamrin. Marko adalah Mas Marko Kartodikromo, anak didik Tirto Adhi Soerjo, yang setelah sang guru meninggal, pindah ke Surakarta dan mendirikan surat kabar sendiri bernama Doenia Bergerak. Prinses van Kasiruta, istri ketiga Minke, adalah Prinses Fatimah, istri ketiga Tirto Adhi Soerjo, yang lebih dikenal dengan nama Prinses van Bacan.
Hadji Samadi adalah K.H.Samanhudi tentu saja :D
Mempelajari sejarah dari buku Pram ini ternyata menyenangkan. Tidak seperti ketika membaca buku PSPB dulu hehe.
Pera: Menarikkah buku ini tanpa alur sejarah didalamnya?. Sejarah Indonesia adalah daya tarik buku ini.
Membaca novel ini adalah cara belajar Sejarah yang lebih menyenangkan, dari pada menghapal point-point, tahun dan nama Raja-raja dalam buku pelajaran Sejarah dibangku sekolah dulu.
Serasa mundur berabad-abad dan melihat kegelisahan pemuda masa lalu. Pergulatan Menggugat identitas diri, atau menjual diri pada Belanda.
Ternyata Budi Utomo tak semegah bayanganku di buku sejarah bangku sekolahan. Ternyata Kartini....Perlahan melahap buku ini. Semangat Organisasinya masih bisa menjadi inspirasi. Salut untuk siapapun yang berjuang untuk Negeri ini. Merdeka!!!
Anugerah: Well.. I read the English version, in which the title is translated into "Footsteps".A great book by Pramoedya. What I loved about the book is the way Pramoedya eloquently described the psychosocial condition in Indonesia during the time (Dutch occupation) in subtle ways, through the characters' actions and words. This subtlety obscures the real picture that Pramoedya try to illustrate, hiding the message from view until that golden moment when we realized we have discovered the shining gem beneath the hidden rubbles ^^
It's an interesting narrative for those who likes fiction, but it is more than impressive for social science enthusiasts like me. The immersive use of words also put one into the immediate surroundings of the time, erecting the general norms and customs of the time, placing us in an invisible balcony above the characters.
Nina: While in Indonesia, I read this third book in the quartet. This was the best so far, in that it helped me understand the people and politics, more than the other two. In particular, Toer describes the resentments against the Chinese and their ability to organize politically, as opposed to the Indonesians' inability to consolidate. The tone of the book is slightly more serious than my experiences with Indonesians have been so far. Toer also mentions how women have to eat after men (happened at our Bible study in Indonesia). There were also fewer drawn out conversations between Mas and his mother in this book.
Brian: The first book in this quartet This Earth of Mankind made me cry. The second book Child of All Nations made me cry. This third installment of the Buru Quartet made me angry. Colonization just sucks. And when a nation of mixed cultures fight each other while working towards independence, freedom if achieved is tainted. Footsteps is the biggest of the quartet and the most political. From what I understand it is also the last of the first person narrative from Minke's point of view. One more to go and I really hope that Indonesia gets it together... but now in 2009 I know how this earth of mankind stands both politically and culturally and I don't know if Minke would be proud.
"So what is the use of the French Revolution then?" and her voice was so gentle, as it had always been ever since the first time I heard it. "You said it was to free men from the burdens made by other men. Wasn't that it? That is not Javanese. A Javanese does something with no other motive than to do it. Orders come from Allah, from the gods, from the Raja. After a Javanese has carried out the order, he will feel satisfied because he has become himself. And then he waits for the next order. So the Javanese are grateful, they give thanks. They are not preyed upon by monsters within themselves."
Although nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Pramoedya Ananta Toer gave up his chance of ever winning when he died. Damn it, why didn't he wait a little longer before dying?
Bethtub: The series was amazing. Yah, yah, for real. I found one in a bookstore (I love how, in used bookstores, books will nuzzle themselves under my fingers and leap into my palm, uncalled) and promptly got the rest. A searing analysis of class in Indonesia and of colonialism at large, a splendid narrative and vivid characters that don't fall into "I like thi sone, I don't like that one" roles. I bought the series for my brother and egged everyone I knew to read it. My (at the time) radical partner lapped it up too and brought it up over and again in organizing contexts. It is valuable as a novel, to expand understanding It kicks so much ass, I can't do it justice here. Go read them. All of them.
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