YLBHI to award founders, hero

JAKARTA: The Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) will confer its inaugural LBH Awards on its founders and a layman, all of whom have struggled to uphold the law and justice, and to protect the public interest.

The awards ceremony will be held next Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Hotel Indonesia as part of a series of events to celebrate the YLBHI's 32nd anniversary, which falls on Oct. 28.

The awards will go to former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, former National Police chief Gen. (ret) Hoegeng Iman Santoso -- both YLBHI co-founders -- and Riwut, the keeper of the Manggarai sluice gate, who risked his life to remove rubbish stuck underwater in the sluice during the flooding that hit Jakarta early this year.

A charity night will follow, which, according to the chairman of the event's organizing committee, Teguh Samudera, is a way of inviting public participation in funding the operation of the YLBHI and its 14 offices as foreign donors had reduced their aid this year. --JP