Azas Tigor fights for disadvantaged<\/p>\n
Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Don't expect Azas Tigor Nainggolan to apologize because he won't.<\/p>\n
As an ordinary human being, does he ever make a mistake in his
\npersonal judgment? \"My mistakes are I am easily infuriated and
\nfoolhardy enough to speak out.\"<\/p>\n
Activist-cum-lawyer Tigor, as he is affectionately known, has
\nbecome widely known among the Jakarta public and the city
\nadministration's bigwigs for his strident opinions on rampant
\ncorruption, injustice and poverty in the capital.<\/p>\n
Don't miscast him, though, as a fierce and stern activist
\nleader because his voice is loud, but not in a hostile way. Tigor
\nis easily moved to raucous laughter.<\/p>\n
He has sent letters requesting constructive dialog to Jakarta
\nGovernor Sutiyoso many times because Tigor \"can't stand to see
\nhow he manages this city.\" None have been responded to, though.<\/p>\n
\"I also can't stand to see other people suffering. Or street
\nkids trying to earn a pittance in heavy downpours or scorching
\nheat. Such scenes just tear my heart apart,\" he said, shaking his
\nhead.<\/p>\n
His tender heart, however, functions as a powerful
\nmotivational force inside him that ignited his deep involvement
\nin the fight against outrageous measures perpetrated by the state
\nand even fellow activists on the people.<\/p>\n
Tigor and his group FAKTA (Jakarta Residents Forum), which was
\nfounded in 1996, stand up for residents whose homes are bulldozed
\nand set ablaze by Jakarta administration civilian security
\npersonnel, and for banned becak (pedicab) drivers, evicted street
\ntraders and many others.<\/p>\n
\"I started with street kids in the late 1980s. I was asked to
\nhelp the Jakarta Social Institute (ISJ, a research and non-
\ngovernmental group working on social issues, particularly street
\nkids),\" he recalls.<\/p>\n
However, long before that he also took part in a series of
\ncampaigns and street rallies to publicize the fate of Cipanas
\nfarmers whose land was arbitrarily claimed by the family of
\nformer president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
\"I was jailed and underwent the usual criminal questioning at
\nthe Jakarta Police Headquarters for staging a rally. Worse still,
\nthe final test on my thesis was disrupted because they apparently
\nwent to my lecturers and the university rector to ask them to
\n'educate' me.\"<\/p>\n
\"Yet I haven't stopped, even though I've had different options
\nopen to me. I don't know what runs in my blood. It's true that if
\nI stop for a while and think, this job of mine seems really
\nfrustrating,\" says Tigor, who graduated from the University of
\nIndonesia, majoring international affairs and once dreamed of
\nbeing a diplomat.<\/p>\n
\"The evicted, banned and unlucky people give us strength. They
\nknow we help them and fight for them. That boosts their spirit
\nand therefore it would be a shame if we, who have many privileges
\nand luxuries, did nothing for them,\" Tigor said.<\/p>\n
What makes him tick, though?<\/p>\n
Tigor, father of two sons -- Ignatius Stephanus Manogi and
\nYoseph Madeliano, was born in Medan, North Sumatra, 39 years ago.
\nHe was blessed with an egalitarian upbringing. His parents are
\nboth moderate, open-minded teachers.<\/p>\n
\"As the eldest in the family, I was treated the same as my
\nother siblings. We traded arguments -- not of the quarrelsome
\ntype -- if needed, and that was done to gain a better
\nunderstanding of what we thought,\" he says.<\/p>\n
Another privilege is that he was \"lucky\" to have lived in a
\nkampong neighborhood in his younger days in Matraman, East
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
\"I learned a lot from kampong people. They have a great sense
\nof solidarity and respect for social values and there are strong
\nhumanitarian links between them,\" says Tigor who is married to
\nTiarlin Apridawati.<\/p>\n
Recently Tigor and his group FAKTA (the Jakarta Residents
\nForum) kicked off a morality movement, known as a social
\ncontract, to be signed up to by councillors. The contract is a
\nform of pledge signed by the councillors for not accepting any
\namplop (envelopes), a term for bribe money.<\/p>\n
Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Tigor said although only a
\nfew councillors were willing to sign up to it, he believed
\nstrongly that one day more people would press for a contract
\nagreed to by councillors.<\/p>\n
Smirks, smirks: He knows that some do that for lack of an
\nunderstanding of what he is doing.<\/p>\n
\"It's an attempt worth trying. I dream that Jakarta, this big
\nkampong, will be more like an ancient Greek city where people
\ncould participate and watch and were involved directly in the way
\ngovernment ran their administration,\" he says one sunny afternoon
\nat his rented office -- snug in the middle of Pisangan Baru
\nneighborhood, Rawamangun.<\/p>\n
Every Wednesday, the small office is always packed with the
\ncity's disadvantaged -- drivers, evicted residents, pedicab
\ndrivers and street traders.<\/p>\n
\"We meet and discuss a variety of issues -- what to do and how
\nto do it,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The regular meeting and the discussions were Tigor's tool to
\neducate the people, opening their eyes to comprehend the need to
\nhave their rights served and their obligations fulfilled.<\/p>\n
\"I told them not to remain silent while their rights are
\nsidestepped and bulldozed.\"<\/p>\n
\"We're stronger now, as the people have formed groups and
\nfight in groups. There must be reasons as to why they are
\nvictimized by power-holders who are supposed to serve them,\" he
\ncontinued.<\/p>\n
There was nothing new, though, to his approach because a
\nBrazilian educator, Paolo Freire, wrote in his famous book
\nPedagogy of the Oppressed, how to teach the oppressed, not only
\nto empower them to rise up, but also to develop within themselves
\na higher level of integrity.<\/p>\n
\"I admire Freire. I've read much of the works of Ivan Illich,
\nMachiavelli and Rousseau. Some of their thoughts are deeply
\ninstilled in me,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that in Jakarta there was nobody to be scared of, not
\neven Sutiyoso nor military figures, as long as he believed he was
\ndoing the right thing.<\/p>\n
In one of his essays, he used a famous quote from Martin
\nLuther King as an introduction: \"... when evil men burn and bomb,
\ngood men must build and bind. Where evil men would seek to
\nperpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into
\nbeing a real order of justice.\"<\/p>\n
\"If people who were victimized were willing to struggle for a
\nbetter system, why can't we?\" he added.<\/p>\n
\"For some people I may not be a good man but I know to others
\nI'm one of the few good men,\" he said.<\/p>",
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