H

e left when he was needed most. He left when the oppressed were still struggling to have their say. In spite of it all, labor activist Fauzi Abdullah departed with more than just memories.

Oji, as his fellow activists called him, left a legacy: keep fighting against injustice.

While Muslims were busy celebrating Idul Adha on Nov. 27, laborers in the country were mourning. They mourned the loss of their most consistent defender, their father figure.

The rights activist also called Abah (father) or Bang (brother), Oji, died at age 60, just before he was to be rewarded for his work defending the rights of laborers in Indonesia. He succumbed to lung and liver diseases, which hit him hardest during the past month, leaving his wife and 9-year-old son behind.

Todung Mulya Lubis, noted lawyer and fellow rights activist, said Fauzi was supposed to receive the prestigious Yap Thiam Hien Award for human rights workers, in the lifetime achievement category.

The former head of the labor division at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation was buried near his house in Empang, Bogor in West Java.

Oji passed away at a time when laborers were still struggling against the current, attempting to survive and build bargaining power in the midst of the ever-stronger hands of capital.

Activists, who have been around Oji since the mid 1980s, knew him as humble, humorous man who hid powerful thoughts on labor issues in Indonesia underneath jokes and laughter. But he didn't hide them that well; people would recognize his sharp mind right away.

Concerned with the issue of laborers since an early age, Oji started his lifetime work at the Jakarta Legal Aid Agency where he continuously tried to devise strategies to empower laborers during a very repressive time.

He knew exactly how to execute his plans. Series of discussions that he held among laborers turned out to be an effective way to nurture young talent into union leaders during the new regime era.

His most outstanding achievement was probably the way he succeeded in recognizing laborers' to-be leaders inside the Indonesian Labor Union, the only organization of its kind during that period of strong state intervention.

Along with fellow human rights activists like Teten Masduki, Hemasari, Johnson Panjaitan, Arist Sirait and the late Bambang Harry, he mobilized the masses and raised the issue among people in various Javanese cities and in North Sumatra.

At the end of the 1990s, just when those activists started to choose a different path of activism and left the labor issue aside, Oji stayed true to his calling. He delved deeper into labor issues by becoming a professional labor issue consultant for REMDEC, a consulting company.

Oji never spoke empty words. He knew the characteristics of actors in the labor environment and was able to work with unions, funding agencies and other nonpolitical organizations while keeping a critical point of view.

Reading between the lines and figuring out hidden agendas were among his core skills.

For Oji, the labor issue was never a commodity. Every activity had to contribute to paving the way to better living and working conditions for laborers. Not for anyone else.

The man also kept a healthy dose of skepticism towards labor movement concepts and strategies from abroad. He believed the local context mattered a great deal and that not all could fit the characteristics of the Indonesian labor movement, a rare view amid the flow of imported development, democratization, market economy and labor market flexibility concepts that were adopted without being contextualized.

Spending most of his time observing and interacting with laborers on a practical level, Oji knew the power of research and information could serve as a basis to build labor movement strategies upon. He founded the Sedane Laborer Information Agency (LIPS) in West Java's Bogor, joining hands with several young activists.

At LIPS, he drafted a series of research agenda he believed could contribute significantly to empowering the country's labor movement.

During the reform era, where opportunities to form unions grew, Oji became aware that understanding the concept of a flexible labor market more comprehensively through solid research would lead to better strategies.

He was still very much eager to continue his work even when he was already hospitalized. A month ago, during a visit, he said we needed to start working on that research.

We can only promise to carry out his last wish and hope for the same strength and consistency that Oji had.