Emmy fights for 'unheard voices'

Emmy fights for 'unheard voices'

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A golf course may be a place to gather and relax for young executives in big cities. It could even boost the yuppies' pride. But that does not work for leading environmental activist Emmy Hafild.

In fact, a golf course held bad memories for her.

Little Emmy, who used to ride a bike in the surrounding rubber plantation near her house in Petumbukan -- about 40 kilometers from Medan, the capital of North Sumatra -- was saddened after the plantation was demolished and turned into a golf course.

"I was very angry about what happened. It boosted my spirits and motivation to fight to protect the environment," recalled Emmy, whose father was the local head of state-owned plantation company PT Perkebunan.

Her motivation carried the 44-year-old woman to her current position as the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) executive director since 1996.

The upcoming Preparatory Committee (Prep Comm IV) for Sustainable Development in Nusa Dua, Bali, from May 27 through June 7, has consumed much of her time.

As the national coordinator for the Indonesian People's Forum (IPF) -- a loose coalition of 76 organizations mostly from non- governmental organizations (NGOs) -- she is not merely responsible for arranging the agenda, which she and other colleagues began to prepare, starting last July.

She also has to deal with more practical matters: How IPF's activities can successfully be carried out.

It is not a simple task. The forum's programs, the accommodation and travel arrangements for hundreds of IPF participants are only a few things she must deal with.

Emmy will run dialogs for the people's forum -- the unheard voices -- including 72 workshops, testimonies and general lectures about debt and globalization.

The IPF was created in a bid to provide a forum for NGO activists, farmers, poor urban dwellers, workers, women activists and others to share their thoughts with Prep Comm, and to publicize some issues that have been of concern to the public but neglected by governments, such as poverty and sustainable development.

"The Prep Comm meeting is important. At the meeting, civil society can gain public attention and can later express its stance to the outside world," Emmy told The Jakarta Post in an interview at her office on Wednesday, which was often interrupted by phone calls from her colleagues.

The IPF participants -- representing civil society -- are not officially involved in the Prep Comm meeting, at which the core participants are the governments.

The activists are only allowed to sit in and observe the sessions during the Prep Comm, which will discuss the agenda to be taken to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg at the end of this year.

The Prep Comm will have a lot of meaning for Emmy as this will be her last big forum before she retires next month from Walhi.

Inheriting her father's spirit, she left her hometown and was admitted to the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB). As the government banned students from entering politics in 1978 through the NKK/BKK programs, she poured her energy into joining nature- lovers' groups.

Having completed her degree in agronomy in 1982, Emmy was once doubtful about her future. Business was out of the question as she was not money-minded. Her rebellious attitude barred her from entering the bureaucracy. Finally, she decided to become a green activist by entering Yayasan Indonesia Hijau (Indonesian Green Foundation).

She later joined the Cooperation Secretariat for Nature Conservation in Indonesia (Skephi) and finally Walhi in 1985, for which she started to be a green advocate.

She crafted her name in the environmental diary of Indonesia, after she joined a large protest against the World Bank's generous funds for Indonesia's transmigration program. The program was considered to be damaging to the environment in islands outside Java as it required huge deforestation in transmigration areas.

Her activities grabbed the public's attention and she was later asked to testify before the U.S. Congress in 1987, the first testimony by a foreigner about a U.S. loan to a developing country. Due to her testimony, the U.S. government halted its disputed loan to Indonesia for its transmigration program.

Another of Emmy's landmark achievements was her fight against U.S. mining company Freeport's operations in Timika, Irian Jaya, throughout the 1990s.

Her struggle, under the banner of Walhi, against Freeport was fierce. Freeport was accused of causing environmental damage in Timika.

Due to her activities, she was also accused of masterminding the Amungne local tribe's resistance to the company's operations.

But she was later acclaimed by Time magazine as one of the "heroes of the planet" in 1999, along with four other international green activists.

Emmy plans to leave her hectic life behind her after retirement from Walhi, before switching to another career.

"I'll spend most of my time with my family," said the mother of two, whose husband works as a professional in the information technology field.

On the environment, which has been her lifelong commitment, she could only dream: "I dream that we will have a president who is greatly concerned about the environment. Sadly, we have not yet had such a president."

The need for such a president is paramount, as 70 percent of the environmental damage here has been caused by government policies.