Legal aid body introduces new executive board

JAKARTA (JP): The new chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), Bambang Widjojanto, announced the lineup of his executive board yesterday.

The board consists of Dadang Trisasongko as secretary of internal affairs in charge of supervision of the finance and personnel departments, and Munir as secretary of operations in charge of providing legal aid for environmental and land disputes, as well as civil, political and workers' rights. Munir is also responsible for research and documentation.

Dadang will have two assistants, and Munir will have four.

The foundation's trustees elected Bambang early last month to lead the body. Former chairman Adnan Buyung Nasution resigned last October.

Bambang got the most votes of the four contenders, but six members of the outgoing executive board protested the election system.

Lawyers Luhut Pangaribuan and Amartiwi Saleh were supported by human rights activist Haji Princen and University of Indonesia criminologist Mulyana W. Kusumah in their opposition to Bambang's election.

The group distributed a leaflet yesterday stating that the formation of the new executive body is "legally defective because it was done through an undemocratic process."

Bambang said he had asked his opponents to help him find a solution to the conflict.

He said he was charged with forming an executive board as soon as possible and therefore could not wait until the antagonism plaguing the foundation was resolved.

"The sooner I accomplished the job the better it was for the foundation," he said.

Toeti Herati Noerhadi, a member of the board of trustees, said the formation of the board was timely because the new chairman will hold a national forum to resolve the discord.

Hendardi, one of the dissenters, said the new board illustrates the foundation's distrust of their good intentions to solve the impasse.

Bambang said by forming the new executive body, the board of trustees had declared the old 1993 body defunct. Also dissolved was the caretaker executive board that was authorized last year to proceed with the election of a new chairman.

The board of trustees' declaration, Bambang said, does not mean he had automatically dismissed the members of the old executive board, but "they are expected to leave their office".

"Those who oppose the election process are invited to attend the national forum in a personal capacity," Bambang said.

The opposing members said that by appointing the new board Bambang had ignored the aspirations of the foundation's branch offices in Bandung, Bandar Lampung, Yogyakarta and Manado. (16)