Buyung Nasution's ouster

A lawyer, as has often been said, cannot choose who to defend or not to defend. He or she must be willing to defend whoever needs a defense. Oddly, the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), which has always proclaimed itself to be a bulwark of justice, has dismissed from its ranks a lawyer who is trying to uphold justice.

YLBHI dismissed Buyung (Nasution) from its ranks because he took it upon him to defend a number of generals accused of human rights abuses. On the other hand, the organization appears indifferent toward various human rights issues that have emerged lately, and whose handling of appear to be focused on the person of (attorney general and concurrently chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, Komnas HAM) Marzuki Darusman.

Marzuki himself appears to be so busy he has forgotten to relinquish his chairmanship at Komnas HAM to some other person after becoming attorney general. President Abdurrahman Wahid, too, seems to have forgotten to do something about this undesirable doubling of positions.

It could be that the generals in question are indeed guilty. Still, to discharge from their ranks a lawyer who is defending them is incorrect. It is a new form of tyranny committed in the name of democracy and human rights.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta