'Man cannot live by idealism alone'

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): Lawyer Luhut M.P. Pangaribuan thought that 16 years was enough time to "devote" his life to serving the poor and needy through legal aid work, and that now was the time to think about his financial life.

"Now is the time to think about me. If I don't, who'll think about me? No one will," said the human rights campaigner who is also a father of three.

"I don't think I'm being selfish, it's because I have a responsibility toward my family," he said of his recent decision to leave the nonprofit Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, which he chaired for four years, and establish his own law firm, Luhut Pangaribuan & Associates.

From his new office on the 20th floor of a skyscraper in the business district of Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta, Luhut affirmed a common perception that working at non-governmental organizations does not provide financial security.

Luhut was replaced last month by Apong Herlina as chair of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.

"It's a fact that NGOs cannot support us, our salary is 'limited'," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

He said that as the institute's director with a family to support, his monthly salary of Rp 900,000 (US$340) was far from enough.

"Can you imagine supporting a family with that much?" he quipped, referring to his high monthly expenses.

Fortunately, his lawyer wife Rosa Agustina Suparno shared the financial burden of supporting the family so that Luhut needed only to provide several hundred thousand rupiah toward his children's education every month.

Luhut and his wife do not own a house of their own. Ever since they got married in 1983, the couple has lived with Rosa's parents in Central Jakarta.

Luhut began his career even before he graduated from University of Indonesia's Law School. He was still a student when he joined the Association of Indonesian Advocates and became its paralegal from 1979 to 1981.

He graduated in 1981 and immediately joined the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute as one of its lawyers. In 1987, Luhut became secretary for the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute and held the post for five years.

In 1993, Luhut was elected director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, one year after he obtained his Master's degree at the University of Nottingham in Britain.

Luhut described his tenure at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute as the time when the organization had to deal with many political cases which often pit them with those in power.

For instance, it was Luhut and his associates at the legal aid institute that became defense lawyers for activists of the unrecognized Democratic People's Party (PRD) when they stood trial for involvement in riots that hit Central Jakarta in July last year.

The case was highly publicized and the activists were recently sentenced to between 18 months and 13 years' imprisonment for subversive activities by the Central and South Jakarta district courts.

Luhut was also a defense lawyer for legislator Aberson Marle Sihaloho when he stood trial for defaming President Soeharto during a free speech forum last year. Aberson was recently sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment by the Central Jakarta District Court. He is appealing.

Through the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Luhut also initiated Indonesia's first class action lawsuit against state-owned electricity company PLN because of an eight-hour power blackout that hit Java and Bali in April.

The party that filed the lawsuit was the Indonesian Consumers Foundation on behalf of what it claimed as over one million consumers. The South Jakarta District Court is in the process of hearing the case.

"I can say that during my work at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, I handled cases that involved just about everyone, from common people to professors, from corporals to generals," he said.

Luhut said he realized that his new activities were vastly different from those when he was still an NGO activist.

"Sometimes I feel like a stranger," he said of his entrance into the business world. "Sometimes I am caught by surprise at how illegal practices, such as bribery, are often 'legalized'."

Now that he is involved in a world which is far different from his former "idealistic" environs, how does Luhut cope with the situation?

"I'm here now, I know those (illegal business practices) are wrong," he said. "I don't think I can just say no, no, no. That won't solve problems."

He then said he coped by seeking situations which could still be morally justified.

Luhut said because his law firm was still new, he had yet to decide which legal field to specialize in. He conceded, however, that what was different now was that his clients came from the business sector.

"Of course my approach will be different," he said.

This does not mean that Luhut has foregone his interest in political cases. He expressed hope that he would someday be able to return to his previous activities.

"Maybe after I've earned enough money from my new job... maybe in ten years' time," he said.