Nurlaila stands firm against injustice

Nurlaila stands firm against injustice

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The story of David's triumph against Goliath inspires small
people to maintain their courage in facing powerful interests in
battles to defend the truth.

Nurlaila Haji Muhammad, a former teacher of SMPN 56 junior
high school in Melawai, South Jakarta, seems to understand well
the moral of that story.

Even though she realizes that she is just an ordinary citizen
and an unemployed widow, she maintains her courage in facing what
she perceives as an unjust decision from the most powerful person
in Jakarta, Governor Sutiyoso, who fired her from her position as
a civil servant.

The 47-year old has not stood quietly by and willingly
accepted the decision. Instead, she has decided to sue the
governor through the State Administrative Court for issuing the
gubernatorial decree that she said disrespectfully dismissed her.

"The decree was issued on Dec. 6, 2004 and I received it on
Dec. 13. But the funny thing was, the decree said that I was
fired in February. Such a decree cannot be retroactive, that's
why I'm suing him," she told The Jakarta Post at her modest home
in the Blok A area of South Jakarta.

And that is not all. Nurlaila, who lost her husband in 1999,
has not received the Rp 1.4 million in accrued salary dating back
to December 2003. Plus, her rank as a civil servant has been
downgraded from IV-A to III-D.

She has faced this series of sanctions because she refused to
teach after her SMPN 56 was relocated to Jeruk Purut, some 12
kilometers from its original location in Melawai.

Last year, city public order officers locked up the Melawai
school, arguing that it had to be relocated due to a 1998 land-
swap deal between the Ministry of National Education and PT
Disantara, a company owned by former minister of manpower Abdul
Latief.

Of the 63 teachers who had originally opposed the deal,
Nurlaila is the only one who still refuses to concede that the
transaction was valid and legal.

"There was a divergence of law over the deal. Various
ministerial decisions said that such deals had to be processed
through a presidential decree. Meanwhile, Gus Dur, Megawati, and
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have never issued such a decree."

"Second, the land was only sold for Rp 2.5 million per square
meter, while the tax valuation of the land was Rp 9.65 million
per square meter. This indicates corruption," she said.

Because of this, Nurlaila is determined to keep demanding that
the governor reinstate her rights as a civil servant.

At the same time, Nurlaila also keeps fighting to have the
land-swap deal annulled as well. She is currently awaiting the
outcome of a class action suit she filed along with parents of
SMPN 56 students against the transaction in the Supreme Court.

"As long as no final verdict has been handed down, I will keep
on fighting for what I believe," she said.

She is convinced that her core struggle is to uphold her
idealism as a teacher, a profession she embarked on in 1990.

"A teacher should set a good moral example, including by
persistently fighting for what is right," Nurlaila said.

Persistence seems to be in her blood. Her road towards
becoming a teacher also required patience and persistence as she
had to wait years to be employed by the administration as a full
time teacher.

In the mid 1980s, after graduating from high school, she
decided to become a teacher because she wanted to be a civil
servant. After a year of being rejected by schools across
Jakarta, she decided to look for a job in the Pulau Seribu
(Thousand Islands) regency.

Instead of finding a teacher's position, however, she ended up
marrying the headmaster of one of the junior high schools in that
regency.

"On Dec.14, 1986, I married the headmaster of SMPN 133 junior
high school in Pulau Seribu. I then taught part-time at schools
across the regency until the administration elevated my status to
civil servant in 1990," she said.

In 1994, she was assigned to teach Pancasila Moral Education
(PMP) at SMPN 56 in South Jakarta, which is now called Civics.

"I actually prefer to teach PMP, which teaches ethics, instead
of teaching regional autonomy, the main subject in civics," said
the mother of three children.

Now unemployed, Nurlaila must depend on her husband's pension,
which is only Rp 310,000 per month, and also some contributions
from people who sympathize with her struggle, including comedian-
turn-legislator, Qomar.

"He said that he would pay six months of my salary," she said,
adding that her mother also gives her some financial support and
a house to live in.

Nurlaila's family have been her main supporter in her
struggle, besides the dozens of NGO activists who have openly
expressed their backing, including the late human rights
activist, Munir.

"My mother, my children, my brothers and sisters have all told
me not to give up and to keep on fighting. None of them blame me
for fighting this," said Nurlaila, who was honored as a Child
Rights Fighter in last year's Children's Day commemoration.

But somehow, Nurlaila cannot forget the support she received
from Munir.

"Munir told me that I was on the right track and that I should
not follow my colleagues in giving up. He also told me to be
careful because the man I'm fighting is a military man," she
said, recalling how she met Munir two days before he flew to
Holland.

"When I found out that he had been murdered, I was stunned.
Before he left Indonesia he said that I should be careful about
drinking or eating anything offered to me by strangers. I could
not believe that he, instead, was poisoned," said the woman, who
wears Islamic headdress.

"Because of him, I will keep on struggling. Win or loose, I'm
still proud to hold on to my principles. And I believe that Allah
wants me to continue to defend the Melawai school," said
Nurlaila. (006)