In the vanguard of the anticorruption struggle
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung
One evening in November 1996, in the 21st Century Poets' Forum at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta, a diminutive, slant-eyed, fair-skinned youth with shoulder-length hair was arguing with the organizing committee and almost landed a punch on poet Remmy Novaris DM in his rage.
This young participant of the forum insisted on reading his poems because he would have to take a test at his university the next morning, while committee member Remmy could only allow him to appear the following night, meaning a delayed test.
Fortunately, senior poet Sutardji Calzoum Bachri intervened. The youth was given the opportunity to read his verses that evening and went straight home by ferry to Lampung thereafter. He took the test in the morning and passed.
Three years later, Ahmad Yulden Erwin, that long-haired young man, rarely published and read his works in public. Since 1999 he has been active in a non-governmental organization (NGO) that focuses on the fight against corruption, frequently touring villages in Lampung to motivate people to become volunteers or sympathizers of the movement.
Sincerity breeds enthusiasm
Though still engaged in poetry writing, Erwin no longer gets involved in arguments over recitations. "I've found far more concrete poetry in the lives of village people. Their sincerity adds to my zeal to make a more meaningful contribution to society," said Erwin, now coordinator of the Anticorruption Committee (Koak) and also a student of meditation guru Anand Krisna.
His close friends refer to him as "Cina Kebun" (Chinese estate worker), an affectionate moniker for his fair skin and slant eyes, commonly used in Lampung to refer to people with such physical characteristics who come from the Semendo ethnic group of South Sumatra, and who often work in coffee plantations.
Born in Tanjungkarang on July 15, 1972, Erwin was indeed born to Semendo parents. When the New Order regime collapsed and the reform era started, many former student activists in Lampung joined political and business communities. Erwin and several other ex-student and campus art activists chose to set up Koak in 1999.
In the early years of Koak, its secretariat was based in a room in his parents' house in Sukarame subdistrict, Bandarlampung. For drawing up plans of action, Erwin and his associates worked in a vacant garage in the same house.
For a year, Erwin and his peers prepared Koak to become a modern organization based on the masses. In the second year, a major donor, CSSP, supported Koak and helped its anticorruption organization program run smoothly. Within a year, public antigraft networks were formed in five regencies in Lampung.
Corruption monitoring community stations (PMPK) were established in all districts. Erwin has since relied on PMPK volunteers to prevent corruption at the district level, ranging from the embezzlement of rural aid funds and district development funds to the misappropriation of rice aid for the poor.
With every passing year, the number of Koak volunteers and sympathizers has continued to grow from only dozens to the tens of thousands of people they are today. They are scattered over 75 villages in 25 districts in the regencies of Tulangbawang, North Lampung, West Lampung, Tanggamus, East Lampung and Way Kanan.
"They are ordinary farmers rather than intellectuals. My association with villagers has made me conclude that rural people are very responsive to corruption eradication. They have vested high hopes in antigraft action but generally don't know how to carry it out," said Erwin.
Villages the grassroots base
Such enthusiastic grassroots response has prompted Erwin to choose the fostering of village communities as the basis of this anticorruption movement. With thousands of people regarding him as their leader, the Koak coordinator has spent most of his time in villages on antigraft motivation and organizational training.
According to Erwin, villagers serving as anticorruption activists are more honest and sincere in their operation, as their participation is founded on awareness instead of political maneuvering.
Citing an example, he referred to a clove farmer in South Sulawesi who deliberately severed his right hand several years ago because of alleged corruptor Nurdin Halid's victory in a graft trial.
"The farmer was ready to make a martyr of himself for being frustrated by law enforcers. But, of course, we don't expect others to imitate his sacrifice," he added.
Along with Koak activists, Erwin also works in the political sphere by engaging in regional budget (APBD) advocacy at the provincial level as well as in Lampung's 10 regencies and two cities. The outcome has not yet been very fruitful.
However, thanks to the support of other NGOs concerned with budget transparency, Koak managed to unveil provincial-level corruption in Lampung's 2001 and 2002 budgets totaling Rp 14 billion, and Rp 3.7 billion in the Bandarlampung city budget.
Three Bandarlampung councilors have already been sentenced to two years in prison and three others have yet to be tried.
In the province, none of six regional council suspects has yet been taken to court.
Council budget advocacy, in Erwin's view, is far more difficult than organizing villagers because the people he faces are politicians (with political motives) instead of plain and straightforward rural laymen.
The achievement of Koak and NGO networks in Lampung in exposing budget corruption was partly due to support from a small number of councilors.
"We've had frequent discussions with relatively clean councilors. They are no more than five in number, but we trust each other and maintain good ties. They provide data and information about the regional council's fiscal policy to us," revealed Erwin.
As Koak is rural-based, in the future it will focus more on corruption prevention up to the regency level. "The unveiling of graft cases will be left to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). We shall only assist and back up the KPK because as an NGO we don't have the power of KPK," he added.
In order to change the strategy of its anticorruption drive, Koak is preparing the formation of community budget commissions (KAM) in villages. Over a short period, Koak will annually facilitate the development of KAM in 75 villages in 25 districts spreading over five regencies.
Nationwide remit includes Aceh
Since November 2002, Erwin has been appointed consul-executive director of the Indonesian People's Anticorruption Movement (Gerak) by anticorruption activists in Indonesia. The position has thus taken him not only to Lampung villages but also to Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Palembang, Medan, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara.
He acts as facilitator and provides material for antigraft seminars and workshops in 22 Indonesian provinces.
"Almost 75 percent of his time is spent traveling around the country and villages in Lampung. Even his colleagues were annoyed because he abandoned his family when his second child was about to be born," said Daniel H. Ganie, one of Erwin's close friends.
Ivan Sumantri Bonang, cofounder of Koak, said executives of this organization were, at one time, also irritated by Erwin's corporate way of leading Koak. "Staff were required to work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and whoever arrived late would have a salary cut. It led to the resignation of some staff," said Ivan.
Erwin argued that when Koak had just been established and was receiving considerable funds from foreign donors, its staff comprised mostly ex-students and campus art activists, who were not accustomed to such strict discipline.
"As a new institution entrusted to manage billions of rupiah, we had to account for the money and as an anticorruption NGO we also had to avoid corruption ourselves, including time corruption. Now it's fruitful. Even without my presence all jobs are done well by responsible staffers," he assured.
As a Gerak executive, Erwin expressed his anxiety about the distribution of aid funds to Aceh and its reconstruction program. Apart from the huge amount for Aceh's rebuilding -- reaching Rp 45 trillion -- the Aceh public and its anticorruption NGOs still lack the human resources and infrastructure needed for supervising fund allocation.
For the prevention of corruption in fund distribution -- including Aceh's reconstruction funds -- there should, he says, be a system of double control over corruption. The first layer should be the Aceh Reconstruction Executive Body (chaired by Kuntoro Mangkusubroto) and the second NGOs.
With double supervision and the involvement of local people, he adds, the prevention of graft is more likely to succeed.