Legal aid body introduces new executive board
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)