Unexpecticality

Well, this week has been interesting. Indonesia is a conundrum. I expected nothing to work out the way I planned this summer –but not in the way its turning out. Every moment, I vacillate between despair that I will accomplish nothing and hope that the unexpected might bring me to a fabulous summer of discovery. My site mate and I discuss daily the current PC term for this part of the world, if it is even a part, rather than just itself –Indonesia. “Developing country,” “third world,” “second world?” (what is that, anyway?), the global south? Hanna says the social-work world prefers “lesser-industrialized nations” but I balk at this naturally because it sounds like wordy academic language that might be even more insulting. Well anyway, if Indonesia academically fits into one of those categories, my own personal experience in “lesser-industrialized nations” (being mainly only Senegal and Nicaragua, but also including Mali, Guinea-Konakry, Berkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and to some extent Navajo Nation –so admittedly, limited) makes Indonesia unique. I am constantly shocked and grateful at how comfortable I am here. Yes, I shower out of a bucket and use a Turkish toilet. Yes, I have currently had only 1 of 21 days where my stomach felt normal, and yes, I am experiencing a bit of full-belly starvation (i.e. the bloated but unsatisfied feeling of a diet of 75% rice –fried rice for breakfast is a norm here). BUT –what I find shocking and amazing –I am realizing, has mostly to do with the people I am working with –of vastly different character than my prior experience.

Why I left the development world is because it felt very much like pushing other countries to do our Western agenda. Ok, I speak mostly of Senegal. But even my work “developing” the poor and immigrant communities in Washington, D.C. The initiatives and priorities of whatever organization I was working for, while important to the people we were serving, weren’t their same priorities. Lots of frustration resulted. I was pushed instead to become an “advocate” because I think it is a much better use of everyone’s resources to ask communities we want to help what their goals are, consult with them perhaps, and then help them achieve their own goals.

That means they have to have goals. And what I found in Africa is that people’s spirit and self confidence is so low they often don’t have any beyond daily survival. That and wanting to leave to go to America, Spain, etc. I was hard pressed to find people who were inspired and motivated to make improvements in their own communities. So I developed a kind of worship for them. It may just be the crowd I am circling in, but here, those types of people abound. And I think it actually is a good representation of Indonesia’s entrepreneurial social spirit. A drive down any road turns up numerous NGOs –often doubling as people’s homes. It seems the average Indonesian, if not going after a government job or a farmer, is looking to get involved with their pet social cause, even start their own NGO. So its been really exciting. It has also left me feeling that I might be in the wrong place. They don’t need me here to push them –what I am used to, even if I don’t like it. They also don’t seem to need me to connect them to resources –what I ended up doing in Senegal and would like to do in the future. There is an intense web of “politics” here –I think most young people have been “activists” since they were young and in college –and so the NGO world is highly incestuous –everyone knows each other and has their opinions –and so lines are already drawn as to who will work with whom. Obviously, 2 months is too short for me to understand these complex relationships –and even if I was here for longer it might not really be necessary. Indonesians seem well on the way to figuring out how to solve their social problems on their own.

Well, there’s one area where no one seems to know the answers however. How to enforce rule of law. How to get the law enforcement agencies to actually enforce the law. How to get the courts to administer justice rather than favors for those who either pay them out of offer favors in return. I met with a number of activists yesterday, lawyers, “paralegals,” (Indonesia enacted a new law in 2011 that allows regular citizens to practice law if they go through certain training and then take a test. !! So “paralegal” here means someone who has gone to some trainings on the law and are legal activists in their communities.) and journalists to ask them what they think needs to happen to make the conflict in Central Sulawesi stop and for peace to be sustainable. Most agree that effective law enforcement is a major element. But people are at a loss for how to make that happen. Corruption here has, in the words of one activist, been turned from bad into good. Officials used to be embarrassed to be exposed as dealing in corruption. But since it is so widespread and now out in the open, officials are free to taut the “benefits” of corruption –i.e. “pay me and get your way” and are no longer publicly ashamed of handling their affairs this way. How can one even hope to possibly change a system this entrenched?

So, maybe there is a place for me here. However, though I have been blessed to have some excellent translators, language is a serious barrier. If I do decide to do this kind of work in the future, perhaps I need to pick one country or culture and stick with it. Learn the language really well. I don’t know if being a conflict “consultant” and working around the world will allow me the depth of understanding that is one of my main tenants for effective work.

But –finally to explain my week. So, after much back and forth deliberation with my now second supervisor, Saras, I was elated that she invited me to attend a “paralegal” training in Palu, a major city in Central Sulawesi. The actual dates of the training were unclear from the beginning –but we finally settled it that it was going to be Sunday and Monday. As Tentena, where I live, was supposedly a “6 hour” bus ride from Palu, I was going to leave on Saturday. I woke up Saturday morning, packed my bag, and happily marched over to Lian’s to get picked up. Something seemed fishy from even the night before (I think they forgot to call to save me a spot on the bus) but I suspended my doubt as I did my morning English-Indonesian class with the women’s school. As we finished up, Lian told me she had some bad news –there wasn’t a spot for me on the bus, so I would have to wait until Sunday. I was disappointed and slightly panicked –but I tried to keep the faith. If I left on Sunday I would still have all day on Monday to meet with Saras, her supervisor from higher up in the organization (who supposedly spoke lots of English!), and the other lawyers.

I showed up bright and early at Lian’s on Sunday, only to learn that no buses would be leaving until after the whole town got out of church. So we left around 11 and after a full day’s travel on windy mountain roads to a soundtrack of booming remixes of “Barbie girl” and its Indonesian equivalents, I arrived in Palu at 9pm. I woke up early the next morning ready to finally have my first day “at work.” Lita, an environmental activist and friend of Lian’s, who’s house I was staying at, gently pointed out that NGO workers “have a habit” of not starting work until 11am, “since they usually work until midnight.” (The latter I think was just an attempt to soften the blow to her countrymen’s work-ethic –I have never seen anyone but Lian work until midnight.) But I was determined. It seemed that Saras’s house doubled as the LBH (Legal Aid) office, so after a quick (once I found a functional compter) google search Lita called me a cab. I showed up at Saras’s house which to all appearances was just her house –and to my ultimate dismay seemed either utterly deserted or filled with still-sleeping NGO workers. As the taxi driver pulled away, I contemplated camping out outside her gate, but decided the better option was to find the nearest internet café and email Saras and Lian.

The nearest internet café was about a 2km walk down a highway where I received the customary calls of “bole” (foreigner) and was asked by about 5 motorcycle drivers if I needed a ride somewhere. But no one knew what wifi was except me, apparently, so I continued to walk. Lian was right on it-as soon as I emailed her she emailed right back that Saras had contacted her and the training was at a hotel, for which she gave me the address. Yes! I was so close! I got in a public “cab” –a turquoise van whose front end was so close to the ground I feared we might bottom out and waited to be delivered to my job.

Well, I got there, and walked in to a quiet room of serious assumed lawyers, and scanned the room as quickly and inconspicuously as I could being an awkward looking white person stumbled in to a room of Indonesians. Of course, I caused an instant stir, but caught no sight of Saras. My pathetic levels of Indonesian left me just asking “Saras? Saras?” –to which I was ushered to the back of the room to speak with who seemed to be in charge. Saras was not there, I managed to eke out. She was sick. She’s pregnant, a woman told me under her breath. WHAT? Well, I had already caused enough of a commotion and interrupted the meeting, and worse, no one knew why I was there as I could absolutely not communicate myself. So, I did the best thing I could think of. I sat down at the roundtable and pretended to look really serious and engaged in the presentation. I could figure that they were talking about gender stereotypes, and so I actually wanted to take notes so I could google translate them later and find out what they were about –maybe I could use them for my domestic violence training?

After about an hour we had a break for lunch. In keeping with Indonesia’s customary hospitality, everyone encouraged me with one of the only English words they proudly knew “Eat!” They didn’t even know who I was! But I kindly declined, and again ran out into the sun to find an internet café. “Lian –I have a problem.” I explained. Thank god Lian is somehow an American in an Indonesian body and is permanently on gchat. She gave me some Indonesian instructions to convey to the people in charge –she wanted to talk to them on the phone. I went back and she explained to them who I was and inquired about Saras. Then she got back on the phone with me to explain. Saras was in fact sick –and pregnant. “Why didn’t she tell us!?!” I exclaimed in dismay. Lian did not know. (I have since found out, no one wanted to tell me, but Saras is a shady character. I think she must have been one of only a couple of lawyers that Lian knew and so, months ago, when I asked her to find me a legal supervisor, this was the best she could do.) Why, especially, would she have directed me to the meeting at the hotel without even telling us that she wasn’t going to be there?

So, we did the best we could under the circumstances. Lian talked to them and explained that I was a law student and came to Indonesia to study the intersection between conflict and natural resource law. Unfortunately, the training was mostly about gender and the law. (An interesting topic –but I was in Palu to go over the curriculum I had created for the women’s school about natural resource law.) I would spend the rest of the day at the training and then consult with Lian after about what to do next. In the meantime, she would get in touch with Saras.

The training was interesting, even though I was mostly lost because it was in all Indonesian. As I explained, the new law allows ordinary Indonesians to not only educate the public on the law, but to also take actual cases to court –without going to law school. They can attend any number of “paralegal trainings” and when they are ready take a test that qualifies them to go to court. This is so interesting –I want to find out more about it. On the one hand, it’s a great way to spread legal education quickly and widely across Indonesia. This will probably have really positive effects over rule of law. People knowing that they have rights and what the laws are will be one of the first steps in getting them to demand that they are enforced. However, I can’t possibly begin to understand how you could try to practice, or even understand, law, without going to law school. Especially in a place like Indonesia. I have read and continue to read every law journal article I can find on law in Indonesia. And while I knew it was complicated before I came –it is INFINTELY more complicated than I could have imagined. Although there is a sort of hierarchy of laws –there are so many different legal systems in Indonesia that from what I understand, how you win in court is by picking what law you want to apply to your case and arguing why that is the one that should. First of all, Indonesia’s legal system is modeled off of the Dutch legal system, which I am going to have to research –which is divided between public and private law. But there is national law, from the Constitution, Parliament, the President, and then going down into provincial laws, governor’s laws, district laws, and others (I haven’t translated yet how they are different, but there are at least 3 other categories.) BUT, then there is an entirely DIFFERENT system of law –called adat law –which is arguably even law, but is basically “traditional law.” It is unclear whether this is law or custom, but, especially with regards to land rights, it is extremely important. There are basically two systems of land rights operating in Indonesia –the traditional system where agricultural land is passed down from generation to generation, and the “Western” system –title law, that was brought here with the Dutch. As the Dutch dealt with land via title –foreigners and anyone given land at the time was part of the title system. Not unexpectedly, there is no title in the traditional system. It is even more complicated because sometimes its not even individual ownership but community ownership, with unclear boundaries, people moving from place to place but still laying claim to the same fields, etc. Indonesia has made various efforts to get all land under the same system, with various disastrous effects. So from what I understand now, the courts will respect adat law, but basically its up to the lawyers to argue which of the various legal systems should apply to a given case.

But I digress. I found out all of this stuff after I returned to Lita’s house entirely discouraged from the training and not meeting Saras. Lita was hysterical and almost immediately asked me why I hadn’t asked her for help –and most importantly, why I had insisted on working with Saras. She used to be the Director of a coalition of environmental NGOs in Central Sulawesi, and so, as I am discovering on my own, is quite famous in this region. (She now has a 2 year old, and so has tried to cut down her activities, but as many activists do, she has trouble not being involved in everything all of the time.) To my benefit. She told me she knows all the lawyers and legal activists in the area and almost immediately started calling everyone under the sun to arrange meetings for me for the next day. This was a bit of a problem for me –I only thought I was going to be here for 1 day and so in addition to only having 1 professional outfit am miserably equipped in other supplies. But yesterday was amazing: I met the Vice-director at the Institute for the Development of Legal Studies and Human Rights Advocacy Central Sulawesi, who sat with us for over 2 hours discussing the conflict here. We then went to a local freelance reporter headquarters where they specialize in reporting on the conflict and were all to eager to answer my questions. Finally –and this is the best part –I met my first real lawyer –Sujar. Sujar and Saras used to both work on the Peura case (the town where I am supposed to do the training on natural resource law) a number of years ago. Peura has since dropped the case indefinitely because the town is divided on the benefits of the hydroelectric plant in the town. But the case –and the conflict –threaten to rise up again at any time, depending on the effects of the plant in the community. Just a couple of months ago, a farmer was electrocuted during a storm while working in his field that was next to one of the towers.

Supposedly there was an argument at LBH, and Saras split off and started her own branch –LBH Apik. LBH Apik is relatively new and consequently disorganized. They were the ones who held the training I attended. The lawyer from “higher up” that I met there did speak good English –her name is Beauty (?) –the only problem is she’s from Lombak. I was really excited to meet her because, as she explained, she used to be a commercial lawyer, but she was a victim of domestic violence and so now she is a human rights lawyer specializing in women and children’s rights. I asked her if she had an experience in training either women’s groups or police and she said she had both! We started talking about plans for me to go to Lombok to work with her and then her come to Tentena to do the training with us. But when I told Lian our idea, she explained that the culture and the laws in Lombok were entirely different than in Sulawesi and so it wouldn’t work. How is one country with 17,000 islands ever going to succeed at democracy or have a unified system of law!!! But anyway, Beauty said that the LBH Apik branch in Lombak is much more advanced and organized. They processed over 1,000 cases last year (although some of these were only protection orders, etc. and didn’t go to court). Although I would love to go see her work –she promised me she could take me to court with her and to meet clients –I am not sure at this point what my goals are and what is the best way to meet them.

So, Sujar works for the older, more established LBH, and is supposedly one of the best, and only “serious” human rights lawyers in this area. I think its kind of trendy to work for an NGO here, and people do it for the wrong reasons –one of which, of course, being money and one of the more stable career options here. But just in meeting Sujar, you can tell that he is serious. He agreed to come to Lita’s home last night, after a day of traveling, since Lita had to take care of her kid. He then sat down with us to talk for over 3 hours. He answered a significant amount of my list of questions about Peura and land law in Indonesia, and then sat down and drew out a chart of the hierarchy of laws in Indonesia and what types of laws fit where. It was a long session and I think by 8pm we were all tired. Today, I am going to YMP (Yayasan Merah Putih), a NGO that works on indigenous people’s rights. Then tomorrow, there is a citywide meeting with judges, lawyers, and other activists in the area who’s agenda is “The Role of Civil Society in Central Sulawesi in Combating Mafia Law,” and then on Saturday I am going to a training in the conflict zone in Palu. So, I suddenly have a full schedule, but, unfortunately, only one outfit to wear to them. I guess that’s good enough. Never a dull moment.