Life can be meaningful even behind prison bars

Life can be meaningful even behind prison bars

By Imanuddin

JAKARTA (JP): Being an inmate of a penitentiary does not, as
one would imagine, mean the end of the world. Several criminals
of the Salemba detention center and the Cipinang penitentiary
have proved that being imprisoned can also be meaningful.

Towil Heryoto, former president of the state-owned Bank
Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) who is serving his eight years of
imprisonment at the Salemba detention center, said on Friday that
he has spent most of his three months in prison writing books.

Towil and four other former Bapindo executives were implicated
in the Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million) scandal at Bapindo. They
were all found guilty of colluding with and aiding businessman
Eddy Tansil in siphoning off large sums of funds from the bank.

He told reporters after performing the Idul Fitri prayer in
the prison's exercise yard that he had completed two books, one
on the saving system for houses and the other on his experience
during the investigation of the huge loan scandal.

The two books are ready for publication, he said.

"I am now writing another book on the housing loan system,"
said Towil, who is also former president of the government-owned
Bank Tabungan Negara.

He said that he has also learnt to understand the lives of
average people during his term in prison.

Sjahrizal, another former Bapindo executive who is housed in
the same block of the detention center, declined to give any
insight into his activities in the prison.

Sjahrizal, who seemed to have gained weight, said after the
Idul Fitri prayer that he has only read books and done light
sports during his three months there.

Both Towil and Sjahrizal said that they are resigned to their
fate of spending time in jail.

A number of criminals in the Cipinang penitentiary, where
political and hard core criminals are kept, also expressed
similar attitudes.

Ridwan Binti Sari, who is serving an 11 year term for his role
in the 1989 peace-disturbing movement in Lampung, said that he
spends most of the time teaching and propagating Islam among
fellow criminals.

"I, together with four of my colleagues, help each other in
propagating Islam here," he told reporters before the Friday
prayer at the prison's mosque.

"It is more valuable than only thinking over the court's
verdict which I consider unfair," he added.

A. Latief, 70, a former Army Colonel at the Infantry Brigade
of the Jakarta Military Command, who has been imprisoned for
almost 30 years for his participation in the 1965 Communist party
coup attempt, said that he spends all of his time reading books
and newspapers as well as learning and understanding Islam.

Latief was given the death sentence by Mahmilub, the special
court for members of the Armed Forces or the Communist party
involved in the 1965 coup attempt.

Nuku Sulaiman, a human rights activist who was convicted to
four years imprisonment, said that it would be energy-consuming
to only think of the court's verdict on his inconceivable conduct
at the end of 1993.

Nuku, chairman of the Pijar Foundation, was found guilty of
distributing stickers that defamed President Soeharto during a
demonstration at the House of Representatives in November 1993.
The stickers suggested that President Soeharto was to blame for
the various natural and man-made calamities which had occurred in
Indonesia.

"I read newspapers and books to monitor and keep up with world
developments and mingle with other inmates to broaden my social
vision," said Nuku.

The reporters, who covered inmates' activities on the first
day of the Idul Fitri festivities, missed out on seeing Harnoko
Dewantono, alias Oki, 30, detained for passport forgery and for
his alleged role in the triple murder in Los Angeles. Oki was
transferred to the prison on Thursday from the Jakarta Police
headquarters' prison.

Oki will soon be tried at the South Jakarta District Court for
passport forgery.

Ruhut Sitompoel, one of Oki's lawyers, told the reporters that
nobody except Oki's parents are allowed to see his client. Ruhut
himself is also barred from seeing Oki.

H. Dani, Oki's other lawyer from the Amir Syamsuddin &
Associates Law Office, who came later with two of Oki's
relatives, were not allowed to see Oki either.

The solemnity of the Idul Fitri ceremony at the Salemba prison
on Friday was colored by an incident when a resident of Kebon
Jeruk subdistrict in West Jakarta, identified as Fahmi Thalib,
tried to smuggle dried hemp and drugs into the prison.

Fahmi, who was about to visit his friend, Ramdani, was caught
with the contraband by the prison's security officials after they
noticed he was staggering as though drunk.

The hemp and drugs were seized and he was detained for
questioning.