The New York Times reports that Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian novelist, has passed away. Another of the generation that fought for independence, gone.

In all, Mr. Pramoedya, a small, slender man who was frail much of his life, wrote more than 30 works: novels, short stories, long articles, short nonfiction pieces and a memoir of his hellish years as a political prisoner on the arid Indonesian island of Buru.

What caught my attention was this:

He was held without charges for 14 years on Buru, then kept under house arrest in Jakarta until 1992. But Mr. Pramoedya, fearful that he would not be allowed back into the country if he traveled abroad, did not dare leave Indonesia until Suharto was swept from power in 1998.

Despite all Soeharto's government did, they couldn't smother Pramoedya's love for his home.