Leaking aegis
"I have done all that I wanted to do and I am already in possession of all that I always wanted to have. I want to spend my old age in peace."
The man who uttered these words is seen, according to Riris K. Toha Sarumpaet of the University of Indonesia, as privileged for his "good health, creativity, experience and long life".
Revealingly, though, to achieve such true success in life he did not doggedly pursue his self-interests to the detriment of others, instead his was an unremitting quest for truth and justice that, at times, brought him great hardship and suffering.
Yet, against the odds, Pramoedya Ananta Toer's great spirit triumphed over the degradation of corrupt power. He thrust up through the dross of repression to emerge as a great author and an inspiration to generations to come. His legacy, without equal, is, more than anything, a lasting indictment of the baseness of those who wronged both him and his nation.
What a vastly different country Indonesia would be if half as much could be said about Indonesia's judges. They are the men and women under whose aegis the people of Indonesia live. Like a roof, their integrity, or lack of it, drastically affects that which lies below. The more leaks there are the more torrential is the rain that pours through to destroy the health and comfort of those who live beneath.
All the great religions spell out that truth and justice are imperative. The Koran is very clear: "Allah commands justice, the doing of good" (Sura 16, verse 90). "Stand out firmly for justice as witness to Allah, even against yourselves or your parents or your kin and whether it be against rich or poor" (Sura 4, verse 135).
These verses should be emblazoned above the doors of every court in Indonesia for every man and woman who suffers injustice, whether through incompetence or corruption, to point to each time a judge fails in, as these verses imply, what is their divinely given duty. What a difference it would make.
The courage, fortitude and integrity of Chief Justice Bagir Manan of the Supreme Court is beginning to plug the leaks and he deserves all the support he can be given in his mammoth task. Achieve his goal and he, like Pramoedya Ananta Toer, will go down in history as a spirit who made a just, humane and prosperous society in Indonesia possible.
FRANK RICHARDSON Norwich, UK