SOURCE: McBeth, John. “Prisoners of History.” Far Eastern Economic Review 158, no. 7 (16 February 1995): 27-8.

In the following review, McBeth explores Pramoedya's portrayal of his time as an Indonesian political prisoner in the memoir Nyanyi sunyi seorang bisu.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer's identity card bears two typewritten letters that speak volumes about his life: “ET,” for Ex-Tapol, or former political prisoner. It's a label shared by the nearly 1.4 million Indonesians believed arrested in the aftermath of the abortive 1965 coup—or at least shared by the ones who survived their imprisonment.

Though the vast majority were never charged with a crime, their ET status has largely confined them to the margins of society, even two decades or more after their release.

Lately, the National Human Rights Commission has started trying to erase the stigma. But former prisoners have little confidence it will succeed, especially at a time when charges are circulating of...