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.