Charles Himawan dies of heart failure

Dr. Charles Himawan, one of the country's most respected legal experts and human rights activists, died of heart failure in his home in Jakarta on Saturday morning. He was 68.

The soft-spoken law professor from the University of Indonesia, who was a regular columnist for this paper, is survived by a wife, two children and two grandchildren.

"His was a sudden departure," Mrs. Inggriani Himawan told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, "Up to Friday night we were still watching television. He had no complaints about his health."

Charles died in his sleep at about 10 a.m. and will be cremated at Nirwana crematorium in North Jakarta on Thursday, May 16 after a prayer service at Salemba campus of the University of Indonesia at 9 am. His body is laid out at Cikini Hospital.

Mrs. Himawan said that Charles was rushed to Pondok Indah Hospital mid last month for a lung inflammation, but after 10 days of treatment his health was restored except a problem with his heart.

He was recuperating from a cough pending consultation with a heart specialist, she said.

"His heart specialist was in Sydney at the time and he (Charles) had an appointment with him this week," she said.

The heart problem began three years ago, she said, when he had a heart attack, but he was also sensitive to humidity as he suffered from pleurisy in his youth.

"It dated back to the 1960s about 40 years ago when he underwent his university final exam. Apparently, he studied too hard," she said.

Mrs. Himawan said that he once stated that he wished to die in his sleep.

"God may have listened," she said.

Apart from the University of Indonesia, Charles was also chairman of the subcommission on education and advocacy of the National Commission on Human Rights.

He was the first Indonesian doctor of juridical science to graduate from Harvard University Law School in 1978 with a dissertation titled The Foreign Investment Process in Indonesia: The Role of Law in the Economic Development of the Third World Country. Two years earlier he had obtained his master's on law at the same university.

Charles, who was once a dean of the law school of the University of Indonesia, became a law professor at the same university in 1991. He wrote 19 books mostly on economics law. --JP