Azas Tigor fights for disadvantaged

Azas Tigor fights for disadvantaged

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Don't expect Azas Tigor Nainggolan to apologize because he won't.

As an ordinary human being, does he ever make a mistake in his
personal judgment? "My mistakes are I am easily infuriated and
foolhardy enough to speak out."

Activist-cum-lawyer Tigor, as he is affectionately known, has
become widely known among the Jakarta public and the city
administration's bigwigs for his strident opinions on rampant
corruption, injustice and poverty in the capital.

Don't miscast him, though, as a fierce and stern activist
leader because his voice is loud, but not in a hostile way. Tigor
is easily moved to raucous laughter.

He has sent letters requesting constructive dialog to Jakarta
Governor Sutiyoso many times because Tigor "can't stand to see
how he manages this city." None have been responded to, though.

"I also can't stand to see other people suffering. Or street
kids trying to earn a pittance in heavy downpours or scorching
heat. Such scenes just tear my heart apart," he said, shaking his
head.

His tender heart, however, functions as a powerful
motivational force inside him that ignited his deep involvement
in the fight against outrageous measures perpetrated by the state
and even fellow activists on the people.

Tigor and his group FAKTA (Jakarta Residents Forum), which was
founded in 1996, stand up for residents whose homes are bulldozed
and set ablaze by Jakarta administration civilian security
personnel, and for banned becak (pedicab) drivers, evicted street
traders and many others.

"I started with street kids in the late 1980s. I was asked to
help the Jakarta Social Institute (ISJ, a research and non-
governmental group working on social issues, particularly street
kids)," he recalls.

However, long before that he also took part in a series of
campaigns and street rallies to publicize the fate of Cipanas
farmers whose land was arbitrarily claimed by the family of
former president Soeharto.

"I was jailed and underwent the usual criminal questioning at
the Jakarta Police Headquarters for staging a rally. Worse still,
the final test on my thesis was disrupted because they apparently
went to my lecturers and the university rector to ask them to
'educate' me."

"Yet I haven't stopped, even though I've had different options
open to me. I don't know what runs in my blood. It's true that if
I stop for a while and think, this job of mine seems really
frustrating," says Tigor, who graduated from the University of
Indonesia, majoring international affairs and once dreamed of
being a diplomat.

"The evicted, banned and unlucky people give us strength. They
know we help them and fight for them. That boosts their spirit
and therefore it would be a shame if we, who have many privileges
and luxuries, did nothing for them," Tigor said.

What makes him tick, though?

Tigor, father of two sons -- Ignatius Stephanus Manogi and
Yoseph Madeliano, was born in Medan, North Sumatra, 39 years ago.
He was blessed with an egalitarian upbringing. His parents are
both moderate, open-minded teachers.

"As the eldest in the family, I was treated the same as my
other siblings. We traded arguments -- not of the quarrelsome
type -- if needed, and that was done to gain a better
understanding of what we thought," he says.

Another privilege is that he was "lucky" to have lived in a
kampong neighborhood in his younger days in Matraman, East
Jakarta.

"I learned a lot from kampong people. They have a great sense
of solidarity and respect for social values and there are strong
humanitarian links between them," says Tigor who is married to
Tiarlin Apridawati.

Recently Tigor and his group FAKTA (the Jakarta Residents
Forum) kicked off a morality movement, known as a social
contract, to be signed up to by councillors. The contract is a
form of pledge signed by the councillors for not accepting any
amplop (envelopes), a term for bribe money.

Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Tigor said although only a
few councillors were willing to sign up to it, he believed
strongly that one day more people would press for a contract
agreed to by councillors.

Smirks, smirks: He knows that some do that for lack of an
understanding of what he is doing.

"It's an attempt worth trying. I dream that Jakarta, this big
kampong, will be more like an ancient Greek city where people
could participate and watch and were involved directly in the way
government ran their administration," he says one sunny afternoon
at his rented office -- snug in the middle of Pisangan Baru
neighborhood, Rawamangun.

Every Wednesday, the small office is always packed with the
city's disadvantaged -- drivers, evicted residents, pedicab
drivers and street traders.

"We meet and discuss a variety of issues -- what to do and how
to do it," he said.

The regular meeting and the discussions were Tigor's tool to
educate the people, opening their eyes to comprehend the need to
have their rights served and their obligations fulfilled.

"I told them not to remain silent while their rights are
sidestepped and bulldozed."

"We're stronger now, as the people have formed groups and
fight in groups. There must be reasons as to why they are
victimized by power-holders who are supposed to serve them," he
continued.

There was nothing new, though, to his approach because a
Brazilian educator, Paolo Freire, wrote in his famous book
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, how to teach the oppressed, not only
to empower them to rise up, but also to develop within themselves
a higher level of integrity.

"I admire Freire. I've read much of the works of Ivan Illich,
Machiavelli and Rousseau. Some of their thoughts are deeply
instilled in me," he said.

He said that in Jakarta there was nobody to be scared of, not
even Sutiyoso nor military figures, as long as he believed he was
doing the right thing.

In one of his essays, he used a famous quote from Martin
Luther King as an introduction: "... when evil men burn and bomb,
good men must build and bind. Where evil men would seek to
perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into
being a real order of justice."

"If people who were victimized were willing to struggle for a
better system, why can't we?" he added.

"For some people I may not be a good man but I know to others
I'm one of the few good men," he said.