Clarification required<\/p>\n
From the photo-journalistic point of view, the picture that
\nappeared in a number of Jakarta's newspapers yesterday could
\nperhaps be considered rather nice. After all, it is not every day
\nthat we are treated to the spectacle of the Menteng sector police
\nchief, Maj. Anis, and the chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid
\nFoundation (YLBHI), Adnan Buyung Nasution, working side-by-side
\nin an apparent spirit of camaraderie on a common project.<\/p>\n
What makes the whole affair much less palatable is the nature
\nof the job on which the two were working: the cleansing of the
\nwalls of the foundation's building at Jl. Diponegoro 74 in
\nCentral Jakarta's elite Menteng residential neighborhood. The two
\nmen were eradicating the obscene graffiti scrawled there by
\nunidentified vandals during the night earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Foundation officials have said they believe the unknown
\nperpetrators came to the building between midnight and 3 a.m.,
\nwhich are the hours when the security guards make their regular
\nrounds.<\/p>\n
The dirty words and symbols were spray painted and, according
\nto foundation director Luhut Pangaribuan, were not likely to have
\nbeen put there simply for kicks by juveniles in a random act of
\npetty vandalism. Rather, he said, it was a deliberate and clearly
\nplanned act and thus, by inference, done with a certain purpose
\nin mind. \"Whoever they are, they must be people with sick minds,\"
\nhe told reporters.<\/p>\n
The defacing of the foundation's building on Jl. Diponegoro
\nwas the latest incident in a series of mysterious threats to
\nlegal aid workers and damage done to their property in Jakarta,
\nPalembang and Bandung within the span of the past fortnight or
\nso.<\/p>\n
In the first incident, which occurred in Palembang, South
\nSumatra, on Jan. 25, the tire bolts on a car belonging to one of
\nthe foundation's lawyers were loosened while the vehicle was
\nparked outside the local foundation's offices. Five days later,
\non Jan. 30, acid was poured over the hood of a car which was
\nbeing used by the foundation's lawyers. All the car's tires were
\nslashed. Then, on Feb. 5, unidentified people smashed the window
\nof a car owned by a lawyer of the Nusantara Legal Aid
\nOrganization in Bandung.<\/p>\n
So far it seems that all those acts of vandalism have in no
\nway affected the morale of our legal aid workers in these three
\ncities. The only thing which the perpetrators of those crude and
\nutterly vulgar acts seem to have achieved at this stage is to
\nillustrate the depths to which the art of expressing views has
\nsunk in some circles of our society.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the one obvious question which all this
\nraises is: Who could be the perpetrators of such contemptible and
\ncowardly acts? To find the most likely answer to this question,
\nthe natural thing to do is obviously to try to identify the party
\nor parties whose interests are the most jeopardized by the
\nactivities of those legal aid foundations and who have the means
\nto conduct such acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n
Perhaps a number of possible guilty parties could be
\nidentified. But whoever they might be, it is in the interest of
\nall of us, the authorities in particular, to put a stop to the
\nvandalism and to clear up the mystery as promptly as is possible.
\nNot only are such acts a disgrace, in the minds of the majority
\nof us rests the assumption: Who could these guilty parties
\npossibly be but people with money and power -- those whom the
\nlegal aid lawyers are constantly battling?<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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