RI's catcher on the sly

RI's catcher on the sly

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

If there is anybody that has made a name for herself from a
string of tragedies - from the bloody 1998 anti-Chinese riots to
the very recent forced repatriation of Indonesian workers from
Malaysia - it could be Sri Parlupi, a social researcher.

Her findings have sent waves of shock through the public and
the government, stirring controversy surrounding the high-profile
abuses.

A researcher for a non-governmental organization, the Jakarta
Social Institute (ISJ), Palupi found herself at odds with
defensive state officials in 1998, when she came up with her
report that a large number of Chinese Indonesians fell victim to
looting, rape and murder during the tragic May mayhem.

The then B.J. Habibie administration strongly rejected her
findings on cases of rape, arguing that none had reported any
such cases to the police.

The argument raised eyebrows because it is a public secret
that the police had done nothing to stop the three-day orgy of
violence that is a huge black mark in Indonesian history.
Hundreds of people trapped in shopping centers were burned alive.

When confronted by the media, Palupi said that all but two of
the rape victims refused to be identified in public.

Her latest investigation is the plight of the illegal
Indonesian workers shipped from Malaysia to the island of
Nunukan, East Kalimantan.

Her report prompted the irate Minister of Social Affairs
Bachtiar Chamsyah to sue her for "deceiving the public."

Along with friends grouped in the Network of Volunteers for
Humanity, she was assigned to collect and analyze data while
others procured and distributed humanitarian aid.

They also helped local social workers care for the sick and
provide medical service.

In her report, Palupi insisted that the government should be
blamed for the poor condition leading to the deaths and ill
health among the stranded workers due to the lack of facilities
in the transit camp.

Not only that, she also concluded that the government's
neglect had caused a host of social problems. A case in point was
parents selling their children to get passports, the document
needed for migrant workers to return to their jobs in palm oil or
cocoa plantations in Malaysia.

She claimed that she had found three such cases, and more
cases on children left stranded by their parents because the new
Malaysian immigration act forbids those without work permits to
enter the country.

Outraged, Chamsyah demanded that she show clear evidence to
support her report. But the minister faced the music when he
eventually visited Nunukan. Chamsyah insisted that the report was
"invalid" because Palupi had never been to Nunukan.

She stands by her claims.

She said, "I can bring the parents who sold their children to
meet the minister on three conditions: First, he has to apologize
to the migrant workers for his terrorizing statement that
underestimated their plight.

"Second, he has to ask for forgiveness to mothers who did sell
their children because it is the government's incompetence which
forced them to do so. And third, the government has to pay
compensation to the migrant workers who lost property and dignity
in Malaysia and after they reached Nunukan," she said, her small
physique shaking with emotion.

Born in Malang, East Java, on Jan. 26, 1965, Palupi got her
undergraduate degree from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture
(IPB) in 1989.

Since then she has focused on research. She was in charge of a
research project held by IPB's Social Forestry Study Center in
Bojonegoro, Central Java and became a lecturer at the Catholic
Sugiopranoto University in Semarang, Central Java.

Palupi was entrusted to chair the Women's Study Center there
for three consecutive years and was elected as the secretary to
the University's research center.

To become a social worker was her dream. In 1996, on the
advice of her husband, an employee of a private company, Palupi
joined ISJ. The institute was founded by noted rights activist
and Catholic priest, Romo Sandhyawan Sumardi.

Doing the research for ISJ has been a bridge to build contact
with other non-governmental organizations. Palupi has often been
involved in analyzing the results of investigations done by her
friends.

She wrote the investigation report on the communal conflict in
Maluku and organized training for the volunteers who investigated
the killing of dozens of people believed to practice black magic
(dukun santet).

Now a master's degree student at the Jakarta-based Driyarkara
University of Philosophy, the mother of a seven-year-old boy said
she was not bothered by all the controversies.

"The public knows the truth. I just have to bring it to them."

She dreams of establishing a research center focusing on the
people's economic and social rights, issues which have yet to
receive the government's attention although in fact most social
problems stem from the government's neglect of those rights.

And she is no longer afraid of controversy.

"It is common for the government to downplay an issue just to
suit its interest. But what about the victims? Although the truth
is too bitter to acknowledge, we have the obligation to reveal
the truth."

Although it's hard to accept a report done by a government
critic, a remark by modern physicist Niels Bohr best illustrates
the situation: "The opposite of a correct statement is a false
statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be
another profound truth."