A tragic irony at YLBHI

A tragic irony at YLBHI

Something undemocratic has taken place in the Indonesian Legal
Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the respectable oldest institute which
fights for supremacy of law, democracy and human rights in this
country.

The crisis which emerged from the recent election of new
chairman of the foundation has dragged on and on where the
minority supporters of the candidate who lost the vote has
expressed their protest in ways that shock many people.

These protesters have accused the election of Bambang
Widjojanto, the new chairman who replaces Adnan Buyung Nasution,
as undemocratic. The Board of Trustees has denied the accusation.

The conflict was marked by illegal activities outside the
office and unruly protests by representatives of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). These people had tried to get their
message across through by among other things banging the door and
walls of the hall where members of the Board, the highest
leadership body of the organization, was meeting.

The crisis became more serious as a group of senior members of
the foundation on Thursday set up a federation to take over the
foundation's leadership until a new chairman is elected.

For this country, which is working hard to establish
democratic principles, the show at the YLBHI is not new. There
have been so many internal squabbles and even coup d'etat within
political organizations. What is happening in the foundations is
just a history repeats itself in a more lamentable way because it
involved people who claimed themselves fighters for democracy.

For these people democracy apparently means that in the effort
to install democracy all available undemocratic means are legal.

This demonstrate that political child disease is still rampant
in this country and the truth of the old adage saying that
democracy is a long process of people's education.

However, what the people have regretted in this case is that
the ugly show of protest has taken place inside a respectable and
influential organization.

For the YLBHI, the conflict may look like a temporary backfire
of its effort to widen the democratic rights to all its chapters
in the provinces which now have a say in the foundation. Only
some of them, which supported the opposition to he recent
election are not mature enough to exercise the rights.

The second lamentable thing is that the protest has been done
in a coarse way that no opposition in any political organization
had practiced.

YLBHI should take drastic steps to end the crisis before its
image is further tarnished. It should soon review its
constitution, especially the stipulation on election of the its
leadership, which is so sketchy. The foundation should be more
careful in accommodating NGOs because some of them exist only by
rubber stamp and letter heads.

Because as long as some people still has the opportunity to
act against democratic norms one will not surprise to see more
comic tragedies to happen here. This, as other organizations have
bitterly experienced, may include seizing power by certain
frustrated elements from a democratically-elected chairman and an
invitation to outside power to poke their noses into the
foundation's internal affairs.