Bickering season descends on outspoken ICW, Kontras

Leo Wahyudi S., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's notorious internal bickering has plagued not only political parties bracing for the 2004 elections but also non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are losing focus in their activities in the reform era, observers say.

Two well-known and outspoken NGOs that have been hit by internal conflict are the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW).

Observers Hendardi, Frans Hendra Winarta and Zaim Saidi say that the conflict is simply an inevitable consequence of the reidentification of the NGOs' mission and role amid the plurality of interests in the reform era.

The social and political conditions these NGOs faced in the past, which gave them a shared "enemy" and goal, have changed significantly as the competing visions of NGO members have now come into play, they say.

Hendardi, director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, said that the "reidentification process... which allows organization members to have differing opinions provokes internal conflicts of interest."

Interests now differ greatly as a result of the pluralism that has emerged during the reform era, he told The Jakarta Post.

As a result of the bickering affecting Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), nine activists have formed a breakaway group called "berantaS".

Top ICW executives have played down the controversy, saying that it was merely due to differing views on how to achieve the same objective.

ICW would continue to focus on the government's overall performance while "berantaS" would watch over smaller scope governmental services, ICW chief Teten Masduki said recently.

One explanation for the increased internal friction was that these organizations were primarily effective as small, tight-knit units. Once they grew larger, they became unwieldy.

Frans Hendra Winarta of the Human Rights Institute said these NGOs had been effective in the past as they had focussed on one central issue.

"The internal friction (now) happening in NGOs is possibly due to mismanagement and chaotic administration in the organization," Frans told the Post.

These management errors caused financial friction and a lack of professionalism, Frans added.

Hendardi pointed out that it was a well-known fact that these organizations depended on external funding. The allocation of the donations sometimes triggered disputes among members.

Meanwhile, Zaim Saidi of the Public Interest Research and Advocacy Center (PIRAC) said that what was occurring was really a natural dynamic due to varying interests.

Zaim argued that it was important for these NGOs to have an appropriate and accepted leadership succession process in place so that power, and interests, were not perceived to be in the hands of certain individuals alone.