Buyung Nasution's ouster

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