Loneliness of a rights activist
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Criticizing the Military's policy in Aceh is like waving a red flag at an enraged bull. That was exactly what human rights activist M.M. Billah did earlier this month.
The daring activist risked being singled out as unpatriotic by the military and other self-styled nationalists, who do not want to see the breakup of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.
Billah set the world on fire when, in his capacity as a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), he revealed to the media alleged human rights abuses in Aceh by military officers at war with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
He specifically referred to the killing of seven civilians on May 26, 2003, whom the military claimed were GAM fighters.
Billah, who heads the commission's ad hoc team monitoring peace in Aceh, then called on the government to end the military operation in Aceh and stop human rights abuses there.
The Military refuted the commission's report, which detailed incidents of indiscriminate killing, arbitrary arrest and sexual harassment involving soldiers.
That was not his first open criticism of the government's policy in Aceh, either. Earlier, he claimed the commission had obtained reports that the Military had trained militias for unknown purposes and that a mass grave had been found at Nisam, northern Aceh. He admitted, though, that the commission had yet to investigate the reports.
The enraged Military, currently struggling to restore its tarnished image following the downfall of the New Order regime and the trial of generals implicated in rights violations in East Timor in 1999, has challenged the commission to prove the allegations.
A high-ranking Military officer has even threatened "to take legal action against the commission."
Billah reportedly received a personal warning about making an issue of the military operation in Aceh, but remains tight-lipped on whom the officer was.
Billah stays calm, probably thanks to the maturity he gained as a non-governmental organization (NGO) activist for over 20 years. He has chosen a nonviolent way of expressing his opposition to the military operation. He has been seen wearing an all-black outfit, with a black mask covering his mouth.
"I hope this mask can 'filter' my voice so that it won't be too loud or offensive," he quipped.
Billah always wears the mask when he appears in public, particularly when he meets journalists. "I don't know when I shall remove it," he commented.
Among his colleagues, Billah is known to be an outspoken, yet cool-headed man who will stand up for what he believes is right. One of his subordinates in the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) says that Billah is a man of his word.
"He fears nobody as long as he feels he is doing the right thing," the activist says.
When asked if he had lived in fear since he made the controversial statements, he said people were usually frightened by either hegemony or force.
"I have left those two things behind. I have God and two angels with me. I am not afraid of death, as everybody will die," he said.
The 58-year-old always finds support from his wife and two children.
Billah, who enjoys exercise and reading in his spare time, said that his family had never opposed his activism. His hectic commission work schedule requires him to travel extensively across the country.
His courage to reveal the commission's findings on Aceh has earned him an honorific title, "Brave Man". But Billah, who always appears neat, rejects the title.
"I'm not opposed to anyone. I only do the commission's job to bring the truth to light, as mandated by law. If I did not do my job well or hid something, then I would have violated the law," he said repeatedly.
Born and raised in the cool, Central Java town, Salatiga, in 1945, Billah was involved in social activism since he was a student at Satya Wacana Christian University school of economics in the same town in the 1960s.
That may explain his decision to work for an NGO, instead of a private company or government office, after he graduated.
Billah has worked in a variety of social research fields with different institutions and NGOs, including the Social Science Research Institute (LPIS), Institute of Economic and Social Study and Development (LP3S), Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) and Kontras.
He has been well-known as a staunch government critic since the Soeharto regime. He made a name for himself as a human rights defender when he joined Kontras.
"The government betrays the people's mandate every time it fools around with legislation," said Billah, who gained his masters degree in sociology from the University of Indonesia in 1995.
As a seasoned researcher, Billah was dumbfounded when retired military and police officers as well as some former government officials on the commission questioned the accuracy of the commission's Aceh report. Some went as far as to accuse him of collecting data from trash bins.
"As the team leader, I guarantee the credibility of our investigation. We did it in accordance with international procedures for human rights investigations," he said.
He maintained that no information was accepted without proper verification beforehand.
"Doubting our findings is fine because we (Komnas HAM) also doubt information from both the military and GAM. What I can say is that our data is valid and reliable," said Billah, who wants to continue defending human rights for as long as he can.