Indonesian human rights lawyer speaks

Issue 

By Nick Everett

BRISBANE — "The process of democratisation will not come automatically; we have to strive for it." This is how leading human rights lawyer Buyung Nasution described the task facing the democratic movement in Indonesia. Nasution spoke at two public meetings here on September 14 on the topic of "strengthening legal aid and human rights in Indonesia".

Nasution is chairperson of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (LBH), which he co-founded in 1969. LBH is a major defender of human rights in the legal sphere in Indonesia, handling more than 4000 cases every year.

LBH handles political cases, such as the defence of East Timorese students charged with subversion for organising a peaceful demonstration of mourners in Dili in November 1991, and labour cases, land disputes and women's rights. At present LBH lawyers are defending imprisoned trade unionists in Medan.

Nasution spoke to a meeting of 50 students at Griffith University and a second meeting at Queensland Law Society. He described the recent banning of three Indonesian news magazines as reflective of the "arrogance of Suharto". These publications had been operating in a period of relative openness; the abrupt halt to this short-lived "glasnost" would intimidate what is left of the free press in Indonesia.

Asked if economic development and the emergence of a growing middle class would deliver political reform, Nasution responded that political freedoms are never given, but must be won.

"I do not believe in revolution", Nasution said. "I believe in democratic transformation, but we have to strive for it.

"Look at Singapore, look at Thailand, look at South Korea. These are still authoritarian states. When democratic rights are won, they are won by large numbers of people."

In response to a question about the significance of the formation of the People's Democratic Union (PRD), Nasution stated that despite its prompt banning by the regime, the PRD was one of many new organisations forming at the grassroots to demand change in Indonesia.

One of the PRD's affiliates, Student Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia, recently held its first conference. This is part of a process of breaking the government's control over party and mass organisations.

Nasution also spoke of the importance of international solidarity with the struggles for human rights in Indonesia.

On East Timor, Nasution stated that "I believe in the right to self-determination. This is the principle upon which the nation of Indonesia was founded when it declared its independence from the Dutch in 1949. We must extend this principle to the people of East Timor."

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