Emmy Hafild feels at home at Walhi

By P. Prasetyohadi

JAKARTA (JP): "I come from a family which loves nature. We all love to travel and enjoy nature. I love adventure too," says Emmy Hafild, the activist elected recently to lead the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).

Emmy seems to be an ideal person to lead Indonesia's most influential and vocal environmental group.

Given the challenges Walhi faces, its tasks include venturing into a political minefield, tackling not only powerful big businesses, but often also the mighty government.

She has proven herself capable and courageous, handling all kinds of tricky tasks in the seven years she has been with Walhi.

In 1994, she was entrusted with the lawsuit Walhi filed against President Soeharto at the Jakarta State Administrative Court. Walhi sued the head of state, claiming that his action to use forestry funds collected from concessionaire holders to finance the development of the N-250 aircraft by the PT IPTN was illegal. As expected, Walhi lost the suit, but it was the first ever lawsuit brought against the president.

Another litigation that Emmy handled was the suit against the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the American mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia.

Thirty-eight years old, Emmy became Walhi's fourth chairperson almost uncontested when the organization held its congress in Jakarta in June. She follows in the footsteps of Erna Witoelar, Agus Purnomo and M.S. Zulkarnaen, previous Walhi chairpersons.

With a bachelor degree from the state-run Bogor Agriculture Institute, West Java, and a masters degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the United States, Emmy could have chosen any career she wanted.

She opted for environmental advocacy, a field she was already familiar with because of her involvement in the Lawalata flora and fauna study group in her student days in Bogor between 1978 and 1982. The group studied ecosystems, vegetation, birds, and soil conditions.

"I had several choices when I graduated. I wasn't too keen to become a civil servant because that would have been too restricting for someone as vocal and liberal as I am," Emmy says. "I didn't choose a job in a private company because that would have been too profit-oriented."

"I guess I still had the romanticism of my student days when I graduated. My father gave me the liberty to chose whatever career I wanted, so when an offer came from the Indonesian Green Foundation, I accepted it."

She has never looked back, and has pursued her career in environmental movement with great vigor.

Between 1982 and 1984, she was field education program coordinator at the Indonesian Green Foundation. She then moved to the SKEPHI (Secretariat for Indonesian Forest Conservation), holding the title of coordinator between 1984-88. It was while she was with SKEPHI that she formed her political convictions, she says.

She was absent for a few years due to a pregnancy and family reasons, and in 1989 she joined Walhi.

At Walhi, she began as a campaigner for forestry issues and in 1991 was asked to coordinate a human resource development program for environmental groups in Indonesia. She was in charge of a group of 20 activists, who published a book about economic rent in the field of forestry.

At Walhi, she obtained a Fulbright scholarship to do environmental studies at Wisconsin. She also wrote the book Breaking the Logjam with two other activists, which was published by the World Resource Institute in 1994.

She obtained her master in 1994 and returned to work for Walhi as project coordinator for special issues before her promotion in June.

Her new position as the number one at Walhi probably suits her character.

"I have been rebellious since childhood," Emmy recalls. She spent her childhood in Sungai Karang, North Sumatra, where her father worked.

"I guess it is because I was the youngest child in the house," she adds. Emmy is the only daughter of Datuk Hafild, a senior official at a state plantation company in her home village. She has two older brothers.

She says her late father had the most influence on her career, recalling that during her childhood, he frequently took his children on cross-country runs.

She also picked up some rebellious traits from her father.

"Father liked to go against the current, even when he was a civil servant," says Emmy, now a mother of an eight-year old girl.

Another influential figure in her life was her father-in-law, the late Lt. Gen. (ret.) H.R. Dharsono, a leading dissident who died in Bandung, West Java, last month.

"Pak Dharsono was a role model for me," she says.

"He was certainly a positive influence for me in Walhi. There were times when I became confused, didn't know whether to move on, or retreat, or even hide. Pak Dharsono's courage and willingness to take risks always gave me inspiration and strength," she adds.

While vocal in public, she is very protective of her family life. She specifically asked that her husband's name not be mentioned in this article.

Emmy says the biggest change in her attitude came when she went to study in the United States.

"I had ample time for contemplation and to think about my involvement in the environmental movement. It was there that I began to understand the concept of a civil society movement.

"Before, in Indonesia, I was always too preoccupied with my job, I had no time for contemplation. In the U.S, I had friends who helped me, and I had free access to information at the library. I also witnessed at close hand the democratic system there, the presidential election, the campaigning, and I got involved in the environmental movement there.

"I made friends with people from Latin America and Africa. What I experienced in the U.S. got me thinking," Emmy says.

Emmy acknowledges that Walhi is political, unlike the Indonesian Green Foundation, which is a forum for nature lovers and therefore apolitical.

She points out, however, that Walhi does not advocate the use of violence and always encourages people to use peaceful means.

Sometimes people get carried away, like the villagers opposed to PT Inti Indorayon in North Sumatra a few years ago.

"But that was not our intention," she says.

Emmy stresses that results are important for Walhi. "If we fail to protect the environment, we'd lose our integrity and respect."

"The protests we organize are intended to be peaceful. Unfortunately, some people here lose control and turn protests into angry demonstrations which may lead to chaos," she says.

"I think the non-violence movement must also involve the security people. They should be aware that ours is a peaceful protest," Emmy says.