'Man cannot live by idealism alone'

'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.