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Indonesianist Ben Anderson dies at 79
Benedict Anderson/JPA prominent Indonesianist from New Yorkâs Cornell University, Benedict Richard OâGorman Anderson, or Ben Anderson, died of heart failure early on Sunday at a hospital in Batu, East Java, while visiting the resort city on vacation
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Benedict Anderson/JP
A prominent Indonesianist from New York's Cornell University, Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson, or Ben Anderson, died of heart failure early on Sunday at a hospital in Batu, East Java, while visiting the resort city on vacation. He was 79.
Anderson, known for his critical analysis of Indonesia's social and political affairs and his study of the events that led to the massacre of communists in Indonesia in the 1960s, died at a time of seemingly intensifying efforts by the government to silence a public campaign for an investigation into the tragedy, which claimed a suspected death toll of some 500,000 people.
Batu Police spokesperson Adj. Comr. Waluyo said Anderson had been rushed from the Royal Orchid Hotel, where he was staying, to Baptis Hospital at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday after his assistant, Edward, and driver Sugito had found him struggling to breathe.
Anderson, according to Waluyo, passed away at the hospital not long after midnight.
'Around 12:30 a.m. [Sunday], Edward contacted Anderson's family members in the US and asked whether Anderson's body needed to undergo an autopsy. The family said it would not be necessary, as they acknowledged that Anderson had a history of heart problems,' Waluyo said.
Baptis Hospital, Waluyo said, had also issued a death certificate confirming that Anderson had died due to heart disease.
Anderson started his career in 1966 and in 1984 became editor of an Indonesian interdisciplinary journal. By 1970 he was also known as an expert on Southeast Asia including on the military conflicts between Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
Anderson, who was born in Kunming, China, on Aug. 26, 1936, was once banned from entering Indonesia after he and Ruth McVey coauthored the famous Cornell Paper, which alleged a faction within the Army had masterminded the Sept. 30, 1965, attempted coup to scrap the influence of the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and seize power.
Anderson could only visit Indonesia again in 1999 following the fall of former president Soeharto.
The emeritus professor in international at Cornell, also well known for authoring Imagined Communities, a book in which he addressed his theory on the main root of nationalism, had been in Indonesia this month to deliver a general lecture on anarchism and nationalism at the University of Indonesia's (UI) in Depok, West Java. He delivered the lecture last Thursday.
The visit was organized by the publisher Marjin Kiri, the philosophy study program at the UI School of Cultural Studies, and the Loka magazine.
Anderson reportedly had the chance to visit Petirtaan Jolotundo in Mojokerto regency, East Java, before staying in Batu to rest. Sociologist Dede Oetomo from Surabaya's Airlangga University, whose doctoral dissertation at Cornell was cosupervised by Anderson, expressed his condolences on Anderson's departure.
'Ben has strongly influenced my thoughts all this time. He could make everyone think critically,' he told The Jakarta Post.
According to Dede, Anderson's body was transported to the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya and would be cremated at the Adi Jasa funeral home on Jl. Demak in the next couple of days, after the arrival of Anderson's younger brother from the UK and his foster child from Bali. Hari M. from the funeral home confirmed the arrival of Anderson's body and said, 'The cremation is scheduled for Dec. 15, at around 9 a.m.'
