The Wretched Under the Rainbow: Mochtar Lubis’ Thought as an Upstanding Intellectual on Liberation and Social Justice in Post-War Indonesia is a deeply reflective and scholarly work that examines the life, writings, and intellectual contributions of Mochtar Lubis who is one of Indonesia’s most courageous and influential post-war thinkers.
This book is not a conventional biography or simple literary review; instead, it takes a multidisciplinary and critical approach to understanding Lubis’s ideas about freedom, justice, and the role of intellectuals in shaping national consciousness. It blends literary criticism with perspectives from social sciences and intellectual history, providing readers with layered insights into:
-
Mochtar Lubis’s body of work, including both of his fiction and his public, discursive writings.
-
His intellectual stance on human liberation, especially in the turbulent decades after World War II and the Indonesian struggle for identity and sovereignty.
-
How Lubis positioned himself and was often forced to position himself against political power structures, using literature and journalism as tools of critical resistance.
-
The broader landscape of Malay-Indonesian intellectualism in the 20th century, situating Lubis alongside contemporaries and tracing how his thought both shaped and was shaped by his era.
***
“…Miranti deals with Mochtar Lubis’s exploration on the theme of liberation, in which roles are being played by those whose souls, “jiwa” are genuine, versus those whose “jiwa” is fake.
Given that (in governance) corruption is endemic, circumstances change, pressures are unceasing, political infighting initiated and lost, and uncertainty is rampant, no one can be sure if a leader hailed as a hero today would not morph into a sweet-faced villian the next. This book makes for fascinating reading.”
Dr Zakaria Ali
Malaysian artist, writer, and art scholar
“I am much intended to the late Mochtar Lubis. He helped me built my literary career. First, Pak Mochtar as Chief Jurist of a poetry competition nominated my poem to win and published it in the Horison magazine in 1978. Second, he asked me to join him on a trip to Baguio City in the Philippines in 1983. Third, when Romo Mangun passed away on 10 February 1999, Pak Mochtar said that “Dik Eka, Mangunwijaya passed in my arms.”
I am glad that Miranti has successfully written this book about the works and life of Mochtar Lubis. Thank you, Miranti. You have helped me repay my debt for gratitude to Mochtar Lubis.”
Eka Budianta
Indonesian poet, writer and civil society activist, author of Mengembalikan Kepercayaan Rakyat (Restoring the Trust of the People) and Mendengar Pramoedya (Hearing Pramoedya)
***
