Sydney Jones: 'I'd rather be in Jakarta than anywhere else'

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many could not hide their surprise upon learning that the southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group (ICG), Sidney Jones, had returned to Indonesia and spoken at the Asian- European Editors' Forum last week: There had been no prior announcement about it.

The event was also attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who made the keynote address and personally welcomed Jones back.

"I arrived about a month ago," Jones told The Jakarta Post in the midst of her hectic schedule at ICG's Jakarta office on the 14th floor of Menara Thamrin, Central Jakarta.

Jones jokingly said that she had made a stealthy comeback to the country after more than a year living in "exile" in Singapore, following her deportation from Indonesia.

In June 2004, Jones and her colleague, Francesca Lawe-Davies, were expelled from the country by the administration of president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The then State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief, A.M. Hendropriyono, said that the deportation was based on the grounds that Jones and her activities had tarnished the country's image by producing reports that were untrue.

Prior to her deportation, Jones had written at length on the country's Islamist radical groups and the perceived threat they posed to society, as well as publishing reports on a number of communal conflicts that had plagued the country.

Pundits and the media condemned the deportation, saying that it went against freedom of expression. Furthermore, ultimately, BIN itself stood to benefit from Jones' reports as they shed light on the activities of radical groups like Jemaah Islamiyah.

Before her departure, Jones realized that the move to prevent her from working here had started long before the actual deportation order was issued.

Having to say goodbye

"When we received the order it came as a real shock because I did not believe beforehand that we would be compelled to leave. When I went to the airport, said my goodbyes and boarded a plane it was devastating," she said.

Jones was concerned that, after her departure, no harm would befall local ICG staff or its property.

In the event, none of the ICG local staff were harmed and they continued with their work as though nothing had happened.

Following their deportation, Jones and Lawe-Davies opted to stay in Singapore where they also worked as visiting fellows at the Institute for South Asian Studies (ISEAS).

From the city state, Jones continued working for ICG and managed to produce reports about a communal conflict in Mamasa, South Sulawesi, despite having no direct contact with resources in Indonesia. Lawe-Davies, for her part, wrote a report on an Islamic group in Southern Thailand.

The deportation dealt a severe blow to Jones when the monstrous tsunami struck northern Sumatra in December last year.

"Some people that I knew perished in the tsunami but I was helpless to do anything, even though I was close by. I just watched the tragedy unfold," she said.

Friends of Jones who were lost to the tragedy included former Aceh chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Muharram M. Nur, lawyer of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Syarifah and Maimul Fidar of the Coalition of Human Rights Non- governmental Organizations.

Uncertainty over whether she would be able to return to Indonesia also increased Jones' sense of desperation to the point where she made a proposal to the ICG HQ in Brussels about the possibility of doing research in other countries. "I told them that maybe I could help out in Bangladesh," she said.

Nerve-racking return

But before a response to her proposal was made by Brussels, a decision to give Jones a green light to come back and work in Indonesia had already been taken by the government here.

Jones said that she had no idea about how the decision came about; she knew only that people had been working behind the scenes to secure her return.

"I'm grateful to everybody -- private citizens, government officials and members of the diplomatic community -- who worked for my return," she said.

As soon as the go-ahead was granted, Jones decided on a trip to Jakarta earlier last month.

The most nerve-racking part of the journey was going through passport control at Soekarno-Hatta International airport.

"I held my breath as I went through. I had my visa in my hand and had no problem, just as though nothing had ever happened," she said with a chuckle.

Upon entering her office, nothing much had changed: The papers she had left on her desk last year were still in exactly the same place.

Jones now lives in the same apartment building she vacated over a year ago; this time, her unit is six floors lower as her old room has already been relet.

Returning to Indonesia has meant a great deal for someone like Jones, who has had a deep involvement with the country for almost three decades.

Soon after she had earned her degrees in oriental studies and international relations at the University of Pennsylvania, Jones was sent in 1977 by the Ford Foundation, her first employer, to Jakarta to examine Islamic education.

After completing a stint with the Ford Foundation in 1980, Jones embarked on research into Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, in Kediri, East Java, for a year.

Jones later worked with Amnesty International before joining the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

She joined ICG in 2002 and started working on a project that resulted in a report titled Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia: The Case of the Ngruki Network in Indonesia. Ngruki is the Islamic boarding school in Surakarta, Central Java, once led by cleric Abu Bakar Ba'syir.

Now, after what she refers to as 14 months of "enforced relaxation" in Singapore, Jones says she is ready to face all the stresses that are an inevitable aspect of living in Jakarta.

"Despite the traffic and pollution, I'd rather live in Jakarta than anywhere else in the world. Maybe it's because I have more friends here," she mused.