Ugiek listens to voice of his heart

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A number of politicians were angry at legislator Ugiek Soegihardjo and accused him of betraying them when he revealed a few financial scandals to the public.

His then close friends at the City Council, including those from his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), have kept a distance from him.

The 62-year-old Ugiek might also face sanctions from the party's central board as he ignored its order to support the incumbent Jakarta governor, Sutiyoso, in the recent gubernatorial election.

"What I have done so far is nothing special. I only listened to the voice of my heart," said Ugiek, a councilor from the PDI Perjuangan faction at the City Council.

Ugiek and a handful of other councilors are now pariahs among the majority of councilors who are always ready to "compromise" with city officials and businessmen.

He regretted that many politicians had forgotten their objectives when they struggled to topple authoritarian president Soeharto.

Corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) are still rampant although they have brandished about anti-KKN slogans to criticize the old regime. Democracy is also at a crossroads, as many political leaders want to impose their own wishes on the people, Ugiek said.

Ugiek, who is also a lecturer at Atma Jaya University, said many people were still caught up in the euphoria of the victory over Soeharto's downfall. He added that most of the politicians used the victory for their own benefit and forgot about the fate of the people who made it possible for them to reach their current positions.

"I tried to reveal corruption scandals at the City Council, but I was not so successful due to a lack of support from other councilors. Even some of people who used to be my close friends now keep a distance from me," said Ugiek, adding that he had also received a warning from his faction's leader.

Earlier this year, Ugiek alleged that bribery had occurred involving 26 members of the City Council's special committee (Pansus), which was tasked with investigating irregularities involving PT Jakarta International Trade Fair (JITF), a joint venture with the city administration.

As a member of the committee, he said he had received Rp 20 million from PDI Perjuangan faction chairman Agung Imam Soemanto. Imam reportedly said the money was from his own pocket, but Ugiek believed it was from JITF.

Ugiek, who accepted the money, was then reported by JITF president Edward Surjadjaja to the police for defamation.

Ugiek said he was ready to stand trial as it would give him a chance to reveal the KKN practices to the public, but so far there has been no development in the legal process.

Born in Yogyakarta in 1939, Ugiek was 10 years old when his father, Sastro Dihardjo, an accountant, died.

His mother, who has since died, then rented out some of the rooms in the family home and provided meals for them.

According to Ugiek, who has five children, when some of the tenants could not pay for the meals, his mother would feed them for free, saying that she should help those who had no money. He said that his mother also stressed to her children that helping the people was better than asking for help.

"I think my mother's actions inspired me to do the same thing for others," Ugiek said.

He said he did not know his mother's maiden name, but Ugiek still remembers the date of her death: May 7, 1969.

Ugiek, a graduate from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University and NWIT (The Netherlands Institute for Tourism Management) of Breda in the Netherlands, recalled the first demonstration he participated in when he was in junior high school in Yogyakarta to oppose a hike in school fees.

Later, as an activist of the Indonesian National Student Association (GMNI), during the Sukarno administration he frequently participated in street rallies, which landed him in the Wiragunan Penitentiary in Yogyakarta for a few weeks.

He continued to take part in street rallies in the Soeharto era. "I easily get mad when I see people suffering because of injustice," he added.

Ugiek lives with his wife Umi Widati on Jl. Maj. Sutoyo in Cililitan, East Jakarta. He began his political career in the early 1960s when he joined the Indonesian National Party (PNI), a party founded by president Sukarno, the father of President Megawati.

Ugiek is one of three PDI Perjuangan councilors who opposed the policy of the party's central board to nominate Sutiyoso as the party candidate for governor despite the fact that Sutiyoso is a suspect of the July 27, 1996 attack on the PDI headquarters.

Sutiyoso, who at the time was Jakarta military commander, is believed to be responsible for the attack by military men and supporters of Soerjadi -- Megawati's political rival -- against Megawati supporters at the headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta. Several people were killed and others went missing during the incident.

"I can understand if the grass roots were angry about the central board's policy to nominate Sutiyoso. I myself strongly opposed the nomination of Sutiyoso as I considered it a betrayal of the people's trust in the party," he added.

Ugiek also alleged that Sutiyoso attempted to bribe the 124 victims of the July 1996 incident and their families with Rp 1.6 billion through the PDI Perjuangan faction leader. Sutiyoso denied the allegation.

During the gubernatorial election on Sept. 11, Ugiek chose to walk to the City Council building, passing through the anti- Sutiyoso demonstrators, while the pro-Sutiyoso councilors, as well as Sutiyoso arrived in helicopters.

He and several other councilors accompanied the protesters who visited the home ministry to report the alleged election and other irregularities.

Ugiek might be sanctioned by the party's central board for refusing to support Sutiyoso. But, Ugiek said he does not care about the sanctions because position is not his main goal in politics.

"Life is too short. We should not just think about position and how to amass wealth with no concern about how we obtain it," said Ugiek, who has two cars, a 1984 BMW and a Hyundai -- the latter was purchased by the city administration from the 2000 budget despite strong protest from the public, who believed that the Rp 5.83 billion allocated for 55 Hyundai sedans should have been spent on more important things.