Emmy Hafild feels at home at Walhi

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.