Kotaku, Jakartaku, Hidupku: Dari Tepi Danau Toba

Senin, Januari 26, 2009

Dari Tepi Danau Toba

My Life

I get to the internet every second day when I am staying at Tuk Tuk - the centre where the tourists stay. It is at Tuk Tuk that I write up my results from the village.Ed has had a bad flu and fever for the past week so in bed a lot and resting. I have been keeping him company.I will send you a picture of the village I am working in (Silimalombu - means "Five Buffalo") and you will understand why I need to take a break at the end of every week I spend there.It doesn't feel like such a hardship location if I spend a week in Tuk Tuk recovering and writing up and then a week in the village of Silimalombu researching and working on our waste management program - to lessen pollution of this grand lake.

In a day or two I will go back to the village - which is only 15 kilometers away from Tuk Tuk but takes one hour to travel because of the bumpy pot-holed roads - and continue my investigation and our program...so I won't be on internet for 4-5 days until I come back to Tuk Tuk again.As an "Environmental Detective" I am constantly photographing how this society and environment is being destroyed by modern technology.

Yesterday as I walked for an hour along the village roads, I came across an eleven-year-old girl spraying her mother's patch of chillis with poisons from Monsanto and Dow chemical company. The child was without shoes or any protective covering over hands or face and had sprayed the chillis at least 20 times with different types of chemicals. She said her mother would yell at her if she refused to do the work.

During the same walk, I past a man who was setting light to the roadside greenery who insisted that it should burn. "Let it burn" he said "It will clean it up". Everyday you see fires burning up the denuded and deforested mountainside. The Batak's view of cleanliness is to remove most of the greenery that exists on this very lovely island and they are doing a good job of it.I walk I pass plastic wrappers from multinational firms scattered all along the roadways.
Behind a Honda repair shop discarded oil containers from honda motorcycles and oil is discharging into the lake.

Darwin - the Government Head of the Environment - told me a day ago that recyclers and recycling don't exist. "Bataks don't like to do this sort of work" he says "it is too lowly". But while walking along the village road, I spotted loads of discarded aluminium tins, plastic bottles, glass bottles and other junk lying in a field - I suspect it is a recycler's dumping site.

My current task is to track the waste recycler down. He is one of those guys who walks the streets going from house-to-house, shop-to-shop, roadside to roadside collecting rubbish for recycling. I need to find out who runs the dump, where the recycler carts the stuff - to Medan or Prapat, how much he gets for each item per kilogram and how we can do the same in our village of Silimalombu.

warmest to you
Lea Jellinek and Ed Kiefer.
Research Fellows, Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Melbourne Australia

Mobile phone in Indonesia: +62 89133 451 894 or
+62 812 6062 1031 (more reliable)

Home address:
61 Blackwood Lane, Taggerty Victoria 3714 Australia
phone +61 (0)3 57 747230
mobile in Australia: +61 439 620 323
email: leajell@gmail.com

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Azas Tigor Figghts For Disadvantaged

Features - April 01, 2004

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Don't expect Azas Tigor Nainggolan to apologize because he won't.

As an ordinary human being, does he ever make a mistake in his personal judgment? "My mistakes are I am easily infuriated and foolhardy enough to speak out."

Activist-cum-lawyer Tigor, as he is affectionately known, has become widely known among the Jakarta public and the city administration's bigwigs for his strident opinions on rampant corruption, injustice and poverty in the capital.

Don't miscast him, though, as a fierce and stern activist leader because his voice is loud, but not in a hostile way. Tigor is easily moved to raucous laughter.

He has sent letters requesting constructive dialog to Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso many times because Tigor "can't stand to see how he manages this city." None have been responded to, though.

"I also can't stand to see other people suffering. Or street kids trying to earn a pittance in heavy downpours or scorching heat. Such scenes just tear my heart apart," he said, shaking his head.

His tender heart, however, functions as a powerful motivational force inside him that ignited his deep involvement in the fight against outrageous measures perpetrated by the state and even fellow activists on the people.

Tigor and his group FAKTA (Jakarta Residents Forum), which was founded in 1996, stand up for residents whose homes are bulldozed and set ablaze by Jakarta administration civilian security personnel, and for banned becak (pedicab) drivers, evicted street traders and many others.

"I started with street kids in the late 1980s. I was asked to help the Jakarta Social Institute (ISJ, a research and non-governmental group working on social issues, particularly street kids)," he recalls.

However, long before that he also took part in a series of campaigns and street rallies to publicize the fate of Cipanas farmers whose land was arbitrarily claimed by the family of former president Soeharto.

"I was jailed and underwent the usual criminal questioning at the Jakarta Police Headquarters for staging a rally. Worse still, the final test on my thesis was disrupted because they apparently went to my lecturers and the university rector to ask them to 'educate' me."
"Yet I haven't stopped, even though I've had different options open to me. I don't know what runs in my blood. It's true that if I stop for a while and think, this job of mine seems really frustrating," says Tigor, who graduated from the Christian University of Indonesia, majoring international affairs and once dreamed of being a diplomat.

"The evicted, banned and unlucky people give us strength. They know we help them and fight for them. That boosts their spirit and therefore it would be a shame if we, who have many privileges and luxuries, did nothing for them," Tigor said.
What makes him tick, though?

Tigor, father of two sons -- Ignatius Stephanus Manogi and Yoseph Madeliano, was born in Medan, North Sumatra, 39 years ago. He was blessed with an egalitarian upbringing. His parents are both moderate, open-minded teachers.
"As the eldest in the family, I was treated the same as my other siblings. We traded arguments -- not of the quarrelsome type -- if needed, and that was done to gain a better understanding of what we thought," he says.
Another privilege is that he was "lucky" to have lived in a kampong neighborhood in his younger days in Matraman, East Jakarta.

"I learned a lot from kampong people. They have a great sense of solidarity and respect for social values and there are strong humanitarian links between them," says Tigor who is married to Tiarlin Apridawati.

Recently Tigor and his group FAKTA (the Jakarta Residents Forum) kicked off a morality movement, known as a social contract, to be signed up to by councillors. The contract is a form of pledge signed by the councillors for not accepting any amplop (envelopes), a term for bribe money.
Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Tigor said although only a few councillors were willing to sign up to it, he believed strongly that one day more people would press for a contract agreed to by councillors.

Smirks, smirks: He knows that some do that for lack of an understanding of what he is doing.
"It's an attempt worth trying. I dream that Jakarta, this big kampong, will be more like an ancient Greek city where people could participate and watch and were involved directly in the way government ran their administration," he says one sunny afternoon at his rented office -- snug in the middle of Pisangan Baru neighborhood, Rawamangun.
Every Wednesday, the small office is always packed with the city's disadvantaged -- drivers, evicted residents, pedicab drivers and street traders.
"We meet and discuss a variety of issues -- what to do and how to do it," he said.

The regular meeting and the discussions were Tigor's tool to educate the people, opening their eyes to comprehend the need to have their rights served and their obligations fulfilled.
"I told them not to remain silent while their rights are sidestepped and bulldozed."
"We're stronger now, as the people have formed groups and fight in groups. There must be reasons as to why they are victimized by power-holders who are supposed to serve them," he continued.

There was nothing new, though, to his approach because a Brazilian educator, Paolo Freire, wrote in his famous book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, how to teach the oppressed, not only to empower them to rise up, but also to develop within themselves a higher level of integrity.
"I admire Freire. I've read much of the works of Ivan Illich, Machiavelli and Rousseau. Some of their thoughts are deeply instilled in me," he said.
He said that in Jakarta there was nobody to be scared of, not even Sutiyoso nor military figures, as long as he believed he was doing the right thing.

In one of his essays, he used a famous quote from Martin Luther King as an introduction: "... when evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice."
"If people who were victimized were willing to struggle for a better system, why can't we?" he added.
"For some people I may not be a good man but I know to others I'm one of the few good men," he said.

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Rights defender gives Jakarta's poor a voice

The Jakarta Post, City News - November 10, 2007

To commemorate Heroes Day on Nov. 10, The Jakarta Post is publishing a series of articles in appreciation of people who have made positive contributions to the city.

Today's edition of the Post features two stories about two people working to help urban poors face their hardship easier and to give voice to the powerless. Previously on Friday we ran a story on communities preserving heritage while Monday we will run articles on people who have contributed to education and environmental awareness.

These people are just some of the city's heroes and heroines.
By publishing these articles, the Post wants to highlight extraordinary efforts made by ordinary citizens in the city. We also hope these stories will inspire you.
Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
During the last two decades, the city's urban dynamics would not have been the same without the presence of Azaz Tigor Nainggolan.

With Tigor's assistance, urban poor families without Jakarta ID cards were able to avoid evictions and raids.
After the establishment of non-profit organization FAKTA (Jakarta Residents Forum) in 2000, he was able to more successfully pass on the opinions and objections of marginalized citizens to bureaucrats and councilors.
Street vendors and non-permanent residents in the city know they can count on Tigor and FAKTA, which he co-founded, when they have problems.

Yati, who lives in Penas near the Cipinang river in East Jakarta said her family would always have been "squatters" without the help of FAKTA.
FAKTA organized talks with the Environment Ministry and Public Works Ministry, which finally gave residents in the area legal rights to their land after 11 years.
Tigor, who started to assist Penas residents in the late 1990s, gave them hope and a voice in their battle against the administration.

"I cannot understand how he has such a caring, empathetic spirit," said Yati.
Since its establishment, FAKTA's doors have been kept open, providing low-income earners will skills and hope.
With the help of his wife Tiarlin Apridawati, Tigor taught residents of the area near his office in Cipinang Muara how to produce compost. They also taught people living near their house in Mataram, East Jakarta, similar skills.
FAKTA also established a community radio station near its headquarters to provide information and entertainment to marginalized people.

The initiative serves as a means of communication between local residents, who find it particularly useful every rainy season when floods inundate the area.
Tigor said although becoming a community activist was not his ambition at first, he had fallen in love with the work and found it immensely satisfying.
He initially got involved in community activism when he became a human rights activist at a non-profit organization after graduating from the Indonesian Christian University's law school.

In his line of work, he has been involved in a wide array of activities, ranging from educating and training citizens to organizing street protests.
Being imprisoned several times was an obstacle, but it did not deter him.
The government became less repressive in the reform era, but at the same time street protests became common and failed to draw the attention of the city's residents and bureaucrats.
Tigor said the role of non-governmental organizations had shifted, and their focus should be more heavily on mediation these days.

"We (community activists) could not be good mediators if we were always critical and violent. By sustaining good communication with the administration we have a chance to bridge the gap between bureaucrats and residents," Tigor said.
During Sutiyoso's time as governor, Tigor held talks with several members of the City Council and helped to redirect the city's transportation bylaw to focus more heavily on public transit and disabled people.
FAKTA also lobbied for the establishment of social contracts for newly installed councillors in 2004.
"I found Sutiyoso to be an authoritarian leader who disliked dialogue, but there were other good bureaucrats we could talk to in his administration," Tigor said.
He said East Jakarta's Mayor Koesnan Abdul Halim had been most cooperative. Koesnan agreed to cancel the eviction of street vendors from in front of the Military District Command office in Jatinegara after FAKTA approached the administration on their behalf in 2003.
One of the vendors, Saiman, said he was impressed with FAKTA's work.

"FAKTA activists never ask for payment and Tigor is a very good man. I don't know anyone else like him," he said.
Tigor said FAKTA had been criticized in the past by people who accused it of promoting the administration's interests.
"But this isn't true. We work with communities who critically monitor FAKTA," he said.
"People can see for themselves. If our communities leave us, this may be a sign that we have become weak and less supportive," he said.

Kotaku, Jakartaku, Hidupku

Senin, Januari 26, 2009

Dari Tepi Danau Toba

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