Hasballah says he cannot identify himself, anymore<\/p>\n
Finding it hard to say what he is<\/p>\n
Kanis Dursin
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Call it an identity crisis but, at present, prominent Acehnese
\nfigure Hasballah Saad really has great difficulty in identifying
\nwhat he is.<\/p>\n
While he has yet to recover most of the bodies of 30 family
\nmembers swept away by the unprecedented tsunami on Dec. 26,
\nHasballah says his education and teaching engagements have pushed
\nhim into his current predicament.<\/p>\n
\"My educational background is so confusing I cannot easily
\nidentify what I am,\" Hasballah told The Jakarta Post recently.<\/p>\n
Hasballah, who now chairs the Tifa Foundation, a non-
\ngovernmental organization that promotes human rights, democracy
\nand civil society, graduated from Syia Kuala University in Banda
\nAceh as a guidance counselor in 1980.<\/p>\n
Eight years later, he completed his masters at Bandung State
\nUniversity, West Java, also in guidance and counseling. For his
\ndoctorate, he studied population affairs and environmental
\neducation at Jakarta State University and graduated in 1999.<\/p>\n
However, since he left former president Abdurrahman \"Gus Dur\"
\nWahid's Cabinet in August 2000, Hasballah has been giving
\nlectures on human rights at Bandung State University, and
\nenvironmental psychology and new issues on psychology at Jakarta
\nState University.<\/p>\n
\"One of the problems I face now is that I want to get my
\nprofessorship, but I don't know in what field -- psychology, the
\nenvironment, human rights or whatever.<\/p>\n
\"I wear so many hats,\" said Hasballah, who is also a member of
\nthe National Commission on Human Rights in charge of migrant
\nworkers, farmers and fishermen.<\/p>\n
Hasballah, who became a House of Representatives member only
\nfor 29 days and a Cabinet minister for just 10 months, said he
\nhad to continue giving lectures as his pension was inadequate to
\nsupport his family of five.<\/p>\n
\"My pension as a former legislator is around Rp 240,000 per
\nmonth, while that for a Cabinet minister is Rp 540,000. That is
\ncertainly not enough to live on in Jakarta,\" said the husband of
\nDharmawati, 46, and father of Sorayya, Alia and Nadya.<\/p>\n
Born in Pidie regency in 1949, Hasballah, the second of six
\nsiblings, grew up in Banda Aceh, where he finished his university
\nstudies and lectured until 1992. He and his family moved to
\nJakarta in 1992 to pursue his academic studies at Jakarta State
\nUniversity.<\/p>\n
Due to financial difficulties, however, he was unable to
\ncomplete them until 1999, the same year he was elected a
\nlegislator to represent Pidie regency and appointed state
\nminister for human rights.<\/p>\n
\"I was the first and last minister of human rights -- even if
\nit was only for 10 months,\" said Hasballah, who lost his Cabinet
\nposition after his ministry was merged into the justice and human
\nrights ministry in August 2000.<\/p>\n
After he left the ministerial post, Hasballah returned to
\nteaching engagements in universities. In 2002, he was elected a
\nmember of government-sanctioned human rights watchdog Komnas HAM.<\/p>\n
Come the 2004 elections, Hasballah still avoided the political
\nstage, allowing people to speculate that he had abandoned the
\nNational Mandate Party (PAN), which he helped establish in 1999.<\/p>\n
\"It's impossible for me to leave PAN: As I was one of the 50
\nfigures who signed documents establishing the party, it would be
\nunethical if I left it,\" said Hasballah, who was elected deputy
\nsecretary-general of the then General Elections Committee in
\n1999.<\/p>\n
However, he admitted that he was less than happy with the
\nbehavior of some of his colleagues. \"I'm not so happy with the
\nbehavior of my party. We had a very clear platform, but the
\nbehavior of ministers and legislators from my party and faction
\nis disappointing,\" Hasballah lamented. He did not elaborate.<\/p>\n
If Hasballah now visits Aceh almost every weekend, it is not
\nonly because he wants to visit orphanages, but also because he
\nharbors a grand ambition -- to establish an Aceh cultural
\ninstitute.<\/p>\n
\"There were too many losses -- not just family members or
\nproperty, but our own culture,\" he said, adding that the
\ninstitute, which aims to develop the cultural heritage of the
\nAcehnese, would be launched on June 4.<\/p>\n
Also attending the launch will be noted archaeologist Anthony
\nReid of the National University of Singapore, who will give a
\nkeynote speech. Some invitees from Jakarta include Jakarta Arts
\nInstitute rector Sudono W. Kusomo and its relatively young
\ndirector, Garin Nugroho.<\/p>\n
Hasballah said the planned institute would try to emulate
\nJakarta's Taman Ismail Marzuki -- complete with library,
\nexhibition halls, research center, guest house, archaeology
\ncenter and training center for young Acehnese artists.<\/p>\n
He said he had directly conveyed his intention to former U.S.
\npresident Bill Clinton, a UN special envoy for the reconstruction
\nof areas devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami, and had submitted a
\nproposal to him.<\/p>\n
\"Concentrating on physical reconstruction would simply turn
\nAceh into a somewhat westernized province without strong cultural
\nfoundations,\" said Hasballah.<\/p>\n
He is also chairman of the Aceh Care Foundation, which
\ncurrently supervises three orphanage centers in the troubled
\nprovince.<\/p>",
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