A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Although her job as executive director of Greenpeace South East Asia has taken her way from her home country, Emmy Hafild still calls her move to Bangkok last October a home-coming.
Before Emmy was appointed the executive director of Transparency International Indonesia (TII), the non-governmental organization she confounded in 2002, she was executive director of one of the country's leading environmental organizations, Walhi, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment.
""It's my home. I'm back to the environment,"" Emmy said about her new position.
Working for environmental protection is not new to Emmy, who graduated from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) in 1982.
Immediately after graduation, Emmy, who was once nominated a Hero of the Planet by Time magazine, joined the Forest Conservation Cooperation Secretariat (Skephi) in 1982 before moving to Walhi in 1985.
Due to her outstanding work, Emmy was appointed Walhi's executive director in 1996, a position she held until 2001.
Under her leadership, Walhi sued then President Soeharto for the alleged misuse of forestation funds worth US$183 million.
Walhi also once sued mining giant Freeport-McMorran & Cooper for allegedly damaging the environment in Timika, Papua and neglecting the local people there.
""Freeport told USAID to stop funding Walhi's programs. But after listening to our explanation, they continued to fund our programs,"" the mother of two girls recalled.
Before taking up the job as executive director of Greenpeace South East Asia last October, Emmy was the executive director of the local chapter of the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) for three years.
""The contract with Transparency International Indonesia was three years. I'm proud that I confounded TII,"" she said, referring to the non-governmental organization famous for its yearly country-by-country corruption rankings.
The daughter of a plantation executive, Emmy, 47, was raised in a rural area near Medan, North Sumatra.
A few weeks ago, Emmy and her entourage visited Jakarta to welcome Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior, back from a two-month investigative journey around Papua.
The Jakarta Post spoke to Emmy while she was in town.
After working for TI for three years, you moved to Greenpeace. How does it feel to work for an environmental group?
My origin is the environment. I was working for Transparency International Indonesia. Problems in the environment are closely related to corruption. So, in that sense I actually never left the environmental issue. Then came an offer from an international organization, a non-governmental organization that I admired very much. I like Greenpeace because its funding comes from 2.7 million individuals worldwide.
With such a broad funding base, we can criticize companies and governments freely. When I was in Walhi, Freeport once asked USAID (United States Agency for International Development) to stop its assistance to the organization.
What are your programs?
In South East Asia, we deal with four issues: climate change, genetic engineering, toxic waste and forest conservation.
In Indonesia, we concentrate on Papua. We believe that forest conservation in the province can be done better than conservation work in other provinces across the country.
Why did we chose the forest in Papua? Because the province is home to one of the world's oldest and most pristine forests. We call it the world's last surviving paradise forest.
There are seven forests in the world which are considered ""intact forest land"" (IFL) -- the Amazon in Brazil, and the forests in the Congo, Papua, Canada, Siberia, Patagonia and Finland. Papua is the biggest IFL after those in the Amazon and the Congo.
We have made a forest map of Papua and we have given the result to the government.
What were your findings? Any violation?
They (concession holder companies) cut logs outside their concession areas. They also have bought stolen logs. It's a bit difficult to prove, but there are strong indications. Their production capacity is bigger than their concession areas.
Can you name the companies?
They are plywood companies. We have given the names to the government and asked the government to investigate them. The investigation should have been done long time ago. I think the investigators have to work undercover.
Is there any indication of corruption?
At all levels. Government officials are involved in corrupt practices when granting concession permits. The government is now conducting the so-called Lestari (preservation) operation, aimed at investigating and stopping illegal logging. The practices have decreased, but I believe it is only temporary. The problem is like a cancer. It needs to undergo a heavy surgery. Curing it is hard an will take a long time.
How bad is forest destruction in Papua?
It is very bad. If the current rate of deforestation continues, the forest in Papua will disappear in 20 year's time. It's similar to the forest in Kalimantan in the 1980s. I have talked tirelessly about it.
What should be done?
Forest conservation should be part of macro-economic policy. So far, the government still expects an income of US$3 billion from the forestry sector. It should be stopped. If not, we will be very much like Thailand and the Philippines, which have no forests.
Many plywood companies in Sumatra and Kalimantan have closed down their businesses because there are no longer any logs there. They are now moving to Papua.
There should be no more big companies. The companies should concentrate on forestation programs. The World Bank, the government and the Ministry of Finance should forget all the income, such as tax, from the forestry sector.
The country's income from the forestry sector is not that big, is it?
Not, it's not so big. The income is small if we compare with our gross national product. It's less than one percent of our gross domestic product. In 1990s economist Rizal Ramli (finance minister under former President Abdurrahman Wahid, from 1999 to 2001) once said that forestry income was just one percent of our foreign exchange income.
Foreign companies also bought stolen logs from Indonesia?
We work in the markets in China, Japan, Canada and America. We have asked importers there not to buy illegal logs or Merbau wood from Papua. There are some buyers from London who have stopped buying illegal logs. We need to work hard.
The World Bank has an initiative flag program to protect forests. But from several meetings (of country members), the results are not as effective as the work of Greenpeace. We want the governments of Japan, China, Malaysia and Singapore to ban their companies from buying illegal logs from Indonesia. It's really difficult.
Many text books on forest conservation say that the damage happens when local communities and women are marginalized in forest conservation efforts?
Oh, yes. A gender approach should be applied. Women are more caring than men. Women's needs, such as herbal medicines, are fulfilled from the forest.
Many women in North Sumatra protested against a big pulp and paper company several years ago because the company damaged their forest. Those inang-inang (Batak women) went into jail. Now, the company has changed its name. For the women, the forest was their lives.
Is open pit mining also destroying forest?
It's relatively small. The biggest share of the damage to the forest comes from concession holder companies (HPH). We should settle the HPH first. The companies clear cut the forest. In order to avoid their reforestation obligations, they apply for permits to plant oil palm trees.
If the companies were closed down, what would happen to the thousands of workers they employ?
They should focus on reforestation programs. The government should design such a program. We have the funds and we should use them.
You were a volunteer in Aceh after the tsunami. What's your opinion of the reconstruction work in Aceh?
The reconstruction work is very slow. Many promises from donor countries were not entirely disbursed. Many government officials are corrupt. The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency has too many enemies. It does not have ability and authority. It's like a distributor.
You had a bad experience while you were a volunteer, I heard.
Yeah. People wrongly accused me of bringing 75 kids out of the province without their parents. The truth was that the children were accompanied by either their parents or relatives.
Actually, there was a man, a television journalist, who took an orphan in the same plane with us. He said that I had kidnapped the children. It was a case of a thief crying theft.
As a former TI executive, how do you see law enforcement in relation to current corruption cases?
The Corruption Eradication Committee has given a certain amount of satisfaction to the public. Our law enforcers, the attorney general, the police, should speed up their work.
Corruption eradication should focus on those suspected of taking from bank liquidation assistance loans, such as Sjamsul Nursalim. He can live in comfort in Singapore and his children still run big companies here in Jakarta.
How do you judge the performance of Attorney General Abdurrahman Saleh?
His performance has been disappointing. When he was a chief of the reform commission in the Supreme Court, we hoped that he could make a change in the Court. He accepted the offer as the Attorney General, but he hasn't be able to do much.
Lets talk about NGO. Are many NGOs also corrupt?
Corruption does not only happens in the government, but also in civil society groups. An audit by an external agency or party should be conducted of non-governmental organizations and the results published for public consumption.
In the past, particularly during the Soeharto era, NGO members were hunted down. Now, NGOs are fashionable. Many people who know nothing about what is actually going to be involved, have established NGOs.
The trend started when the government introduced the so-called 'rice-for-the-poor program.' Many NGOs applied to become rice distributors. They -- I should admit many of my friends did it, including those in Aceh -- got big profits from the program. My friends became rich.
I'm sorry, that's not an NGO. An NGO should deal with the public interest and not be profit-oriented, and certainly not personal profit oriented.
You are now based in Bangkok. Is it any different to Jakarta?
Bangkok's public service is better than Jakarta's. There is a middleman when we apply for a driving license. Prices of goods are cheaper. Hospital costs are also cheaper.
The culture is almost the same. Thai people does not like criticism, like the Javanese. Many smiles, but we don't know what the heart is feeling.
Have your daughters also moved to Bangkok?
My oldest daughter is still here in Jakarta, completing senior high school. My youngest daughter and my husband moved with me to Bangkok.
My husband decided to take a rest from work. He is tired and is taking a sabbatical. (laughs)
