Why do some Australians perpetuate the myth that Indonesia is some Orwellian prison state in which no one is allowed to think or speak out of line? They do our neighbouring country a great disservice. Orwell rules the minds of these Australians far more than he rules Indonesia.
A sad example. The Australian Institute of Judicial Administration is a fine body that trains Australian judges. It invited the Indonesian criminologist Prof Dr J E Sahetapy to address an international conference to be held in Melbourne this weekend. Theme of the conference was to be the law courts in Asia and the Pacific into the 21st century. Prof Sahetapy duly submitted his conference paper. It expressed serious concerns about the lack of independence the courts in Indonesia enjoy.
However, conference organiser the Honourable Justice L T Olsson was shocked. He wrote back saying Sahetapy's paper deviated from the committee's brief. Furthermore he feared it might constitute an 'overt attack' on the Indonesian government. It could cause 'a real diplomatic problem' to his institute, he wrote. Prof Sahetapy refused to alter his paper substantially. Justice Olsson, a Supreme Court Justice in South Australia, then withdrew the invitation to Prof Sahetapy, and hence forced the cancelation of his visit to Australia.
Justice Olsson obviously does not read the Indonesian newspapers. Prof Sahetapy said nothing in his paper that has not been attributed to him many times in the mainstream Indonesian press.
Who is this Sahetapy of whom Justice Olsson so strongly disapproves? The Indonesian Who's Who tells us. He holds the chair in criminology at Airlangga State University in Surabaya, Indonesia's second city. He is 64 years old, a Protestant active in ecumenical affairs, chairman of the board of Petra Christian University in Surabaya. Frequent appearances at seminars on law and society around the country have made him one of Indonesia's best known criminologists.
The press often seek out his opinion on issues ranging from the proposed new police law, bribery in the Surabaya courts, the reasons for violent rioting, the subversion law, the death penalty, and political pressure on the High Court. On all these issues he espouses good liberal views. Nor is he alone - several High Court judges themselves have said as much.
Justice Olsson fears that Sahetapy's use of the word 'rotten' to describe the Indonesian courts will land his own institute in trouble with the Indonesian government. He should know that Prof Sahetapy was quoted using that exact word in Bisnis Indonesia, hardly a radical broadsheet, on 25 May last. The report sounded much like what Prof Sahetapy had intended to tell the Melbourne conference.
It may be too late to reverse the abrupt withdrawal of Prof Sahetapy's invitation to speak here. It is not too late to reverse the damage that Justice Olsson has done to Indonesia's image in Australia.
Unlike Justice Olsson, Indonesians do not simply lie down and accept the authoritarianism that marks its political system. Prof Sahetapy proves they do not. He should have been invited to come here and demonstrate it.
Gerry van Klinken, editor, 'Inside
Indonesia' magazine.
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