Ismid speaks out for biodiversity

Ismid speaks out for biodiversity

Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta

Ever since his university days, the executive director of the
Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Kehati) has always found
himself in the thick of things.

Even so, Ismid Hadad has managed to keep outside of the
system, an outsider looking in.

Of course, as a university student during the 1960s, he could
not help but be swept into the whirlwind of activism and
political changes that marked that era.

Born on April 29, 1940, in Surabaya, East Java, Ismid left his
small hometown of Pasuruan in 1965 to pursue his tertiary
education in economics at Indonesian Christian University (UKI).

But Ismid had no passion for economics, the theories of which
he thought, at the time, were unrealistic for a developing
country such as Indonesia.

"Of course, by 1966 there was no more school," Ismid said,
referring to the political upheavals following the coup on Oct.
30, 1965, that led to president Sukarno's ouster and was blamed
by the state on the recently restored Indonesian Communist Party
(PKI).

During that period, the climate was thick with the political
ideologies of religious groups, nationalists, socialists and
communists. It was not only the political parties that subscribed
to these ideologies, but university students also set up
extracurricular political organizations.

Ismid did not want to be part of any of this fervor: "I wanted
to be in a professional organization and not be involved in that
kind of ideological dispute."

Instead, he joined the Indonesian Student Journalists' Union
(IPMI) -- not because he was interested in journalism, but mostly
because it was politically independent.

"It just so happened that (IPMI) dealt with journalism," said
Ismid.

IPMI organized many discussions on the contemporary socio-
political climate, its members wrote articles and essays for
printing and distributing to various social and political
figures.

"It was all clandestine, underground, because of the
repressive climate of the time," said Ismid, who later became
IPMI's Jakarta chairman and a vice chairman of its central board.

Eventually, however, he heard the call of political activism
and joined the anti-communist student association, the Indonesian
Student Action Front (KAMI), when the movement got well under
way.

As a representative of IPMI, Ismid was made KAMI's chief of
information and acted as the association's spokesperson between
1966 and 1969.

"We distributed bulletins on bicycles that had a stencil
machine on it. Whenever we stopped, we would print them on the
machine and pass them out."

Ismid also worked as managing editor of the association's
daily, Harian KAMI, and broadcast information on amateur radio
stations, particularly to rally people to large demonstrations.

"Of course, we had a lot of trouble with state intelligence,
but the radios were easily dismantled and hidden." As for KAMI's
own intelligence unit, Ismid was in charge of 600 operatives
across Jakarta.

He believed in generating change, and admitted that any other
ambitions he had back then were lost to this greater aim.

"If you don't act, who will? If not now, when?" was his
personal motto.

In order to spark a will for change among the people, he
organized photography exhibitions between 1966 and 1967 in
Jakarta, Bandung, Malang, Yogyakarta and Manado, corralling the
talents of various illustrators, photographers and poets.

"Everywhere the exhibition went, there would be reactions
pushing for change," he recalled.

In 1969, he spent four months at the International School of
Journalism in Berlin and even took time to report on the
political upheavals between East and West Germany.

"Essentially, I am very interested in battles," he laughed.

But when the new government of Indonesia was installed, he
declined a seat in the newly established House of
Representatives, believing that he could do much more in being
active outside as part of the "fourth estate": guardians of
democracy, defenders of public interest.

"I believed that democracy was a matter of checks and
balances. Someone must fight for the rights of the press, for
civil society."

In the 1970s, he helped found the Institute for Research,
Education and Information on Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES)
toward this very end, and from 1975 to 1980, was its director.
Change was also in the air for his personal life, and in 1971,
married fellow IPMI member and activist Suarhatini.

LP3ES's publication Prisma, which he led from 1972 to 1982,
came to be known as one of Indonesia's top social science
journals.

"Ironically, the publication that became the symbol of
intellectual thought was headed by a university dropout," he
said, laughing. By the next decade, however, this was a claim he
could no longer make: in 1980, he went to Princeton University on
a fellowship and then in 1982, to Harvard University for a Master
of Public Administration.

He was again ready to embark on something new by this time,
and established resource and development consultant PT Redecon,
which mainly deals with energy and environmental impact.

It was through his work at Redecon that Ismid was exposed to
the issues of environmental damage, which prompted him to enlist
the help of environmentalist and former minister Emil Salim to
establish environmental NGO Yayasan Kehati.

"I was also getting on in years, and I wanted to find a less
stressful activity," he said. However, he soon found that being
an environmental activist was no less stressful than being a
political activist.

Ismid was not deterred by his having no background in
environmental science, he instead adopted Emil Salim's motto:
build the ship while sailing.

"All we knew and strongly believed in was that the environment
was important." Eventually, he learned all he needed to know
about the environment through his direct involvement in
conservation efforts.

He believes the country's biodiversity is an asset for both
its present and its future: As the local oil supply is dwindling
and the manufacturing and agriculture sectors were not promising,
its rich biodiversity was the only asset that could be left to
future generations.

"When the world fails to find a cure for diseases, to find
alternative foods when our crops diminish, the genetic resources
can be found in our ecosystem -- in the forests, the ocean, the
reefs, mangrove, mountains -- it's all there. There are many
thousands of organisms yet to be identified, but because we don't
understand, sadly, they are being sacrificed.

"Kehati has so far tried to raise people's awareness on
biodiversity, but I think what is more important is the
environmental awareness of officials and businessmen. In the end,
no matter how hard an effort we (environmentalists) make at
conservation, the forces of destruction come tenfold."

Resolutely, he stressed that no matter how frustrating the
situation, an environmentalist must always remain optimistic.