Welcome dance: Padma Nara Swara performers stage the Lambang Sari dance during the opening ceremony of the Citibank Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2010 at Puri Ubud, Bali, on Wednesday evening. More than 130 writers from 30 countries are expected to attend the five-day festival titled “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika: Harmony in Diversity”.JP/Stanny Angga

During the opening, festival organizers bestowed a lifetime achievement award on Sitor.

The 1945-generation writer is a prolific author who was once jailed for eight years without trial for
his essay, Revolutionary Literature. He was a lecturer in the Netherlands for 10 years before returning to Indonesia. His 2001 work Paris La Nuit has been translated in to six languages.

This year, the festival organizers partnered with banking company Citibank and dubbed the festival Citibank–Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2010.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika opened the festival at the Ubud Palace. On a bamboo structured stage decorated with coconut leaves, he marked the five-day event with the reverberant sound of a gong.

At the press briefing before the opening, festival founder and director Janet De Neefe answered questions on whether the sponsorship would jeopardize the festival’s integrity.

“Of course it’s important for us to maintain our identity but also we expect involvement from Citibank. Hopefully it’s a win-win situation.

“I swear when Citibank committed to us I was sleeping better than ever.

“Last year was the most dreadful year for the festival — how many times did I go to Jakarta looking for money. You can’t imagine how hard it was last year for us — so when Citibank came aboard I just said ‘hurrah!’,” she said.

Citi country officer Shariq Mukhtar said the company believed supporting a literary event was the right thing to do.

“We feel as good corporate citizens we have a responsibility to see how we can help Indonesia and Indonesians move forward,” she said. “With our ability to promote Bali and other regions, we can communicate a positive image of this beautiful country.”

Irish Booker prize-winning writer Anne Enright who will participate in literary sessions at the festival said writers were not the type of people who would do what they were told.

“I don’t believe in cultural embargoes of any kind. I’d go anywhere. I’d talk to anyone, thank you, because I think it’s all part of exchange and growth. It’s good,” she said.

In it’s seventh year, the five-day festival has more than 130 writers from 27 countries. Organizers chose Bhinneka Tunggal Ika or Harmony in Diversity for this year’s festival theme, providing a special event to honor Indonesia’s pluralist figure, the late former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid.

This year’s writers line up include Chinese writer Ma Jian, who wrote a story about the Tiananmen Square protests in his novel Beijing Coma, Burmese surgeon and writer Ma Thida, British famed journalist Kate Adie, as well as Delhi-based historian and travel writer William Dalrymple.

Indonesian poet Sutardji Calzoum Bachri, author and singer Dee Lestari and Noor Huda Ismail, an analyst specializing in Southeast Asia terrorism network Jamaah Islamiyah, are also slated for sessions at the festival.

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