On our last day in Jakarta, we were both able to buckle down and get some work done. JJ drafted a sample letter to support the urgent appeal to end the prosecution of human rights attorneys in Aceh and Victor took a stab at editing the English language pages of the website (the changes aren't up yet in case you were doubting his mastery of grammar).
After lunch with Yasmin we met with Patra, YLBHI's leader, for a long talk that meandered from economic, social and cultural rights and the IMF loan regime to Faith No More and AC/DC as Patra's laptop cranked out the tunes.
Witty, easygoing and dedicated, Patra's comment on being a human rights lawyer in Indonesia was "high profile, low profit." He referred to the 2004 murder of Munir, a prominent human rights activist from a neighboring NGO as a tragedy, but said that such things could never deter him from speaking out against injustice. He said that driving in Jakarta or flying in an airplane were still more dangerous than being a human rights defender in Indonesia, and that working against injustice was for him a moral imperative. Great stuff.
We left that evening feeling proud of our work at YLBHI, and with a deeper understanding of the things that drive this world and the importance of vigilance and principled resistance to the barriers to the protection of human rights.
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