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.