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Teenaged Activist’s Emotional Online Plea to Save Her Mother
Jakarta Globe | February 09, 2011

Alanda Kariza, right, with her mother. The teenaged activist who published her first book at the age of 14 has launched an emotional online plea after prosecutors recommended a 10-year-jail term for her mother, a former senior Bank Century employee. (Photo source: Alandakariza.com) Alanda Kariza, right, with her mother. The teenaged activist who published her first book at the age of 14 has launched an emotional online plea after prosecutors recommended a 10-year-jail term for her mother, a former senior Bank Century employee. (Photo source: Alandakariza.com)
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TakingTosh
3:33pm Feb 11, 2011

Well Ghian - I am sure your opinion cannot possibly be based on your close friendship with Alanda - so I am sure it is completely unbiased. I am absolutely POSITIVE that her 'scholarships' were obtained in free and open and unbiased competition - (unlike the degrees awarded in Indonesia to people barely able to sign their own name) like those obtained by all the 'poor' Indonesian kids 'studying' in Europe. I am really happy to see that in Indonesia even ordinary families, with no friends in high places, have such wonderful opportunities. So which facts do you want me to consider? Please enlighten me - what percentage of Indonesians have such opportunities as your friend? I never suggested her family funded the trips - after all why would they need to? that's what friends in high places are for (and of course the funds defrauded from the needy). Tell me - do you think we would have ever heard of this girl if her family was living on less than $2 per day, as I understand is the case for up to 60% of the Indonesian population? Its good you don't expect my sympathy, I reserve that for VICTIMS not beneficiaries. Have a nice day.

SirAnthonyKnown-Bender
2:59pm Feb 11, 2011

"She has two little sisters, aged 8 and 5. So it would not only make very little sense, but also impossible for her family to fund these trips."

I think you may have to elaborate on the logic behind that sentence Ghian me old mate, as it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, to me at least.

Ghian
2:34pm Feb 11, 2011

Good afternoon, TakingTosh.

I happen to be a friend and colleague of the girl in question (Alanda), and I would like to point out a number of things.

Her involvement in a social activism training forum in UK and participation in a youth delegation in G20 London Summit were funded by British Council from a program called Global Changemakers; she attended a summer course on global environmental issues in Montana on a scholarship from the U.S. State Department; and her tertiary education in Binus University International is also on a scholarship. She applied to be able to participate in each of those opportunities, and she was accepted mainly in recognition of her work in community activism since her junior high school days when she was 14 until recently when she organized the first Indonesian Youth Conference.

And as explained in her blog post - her father was fired after the whole Century fiasco came to light. She has two little sisters, aged 8 and 5. So it would not only make very little sense, but also impossible for her family to fund these trips -- trips that you consider as proof (correct me if I'm wrong) to your assumption that she is 'children of the elite' -- without the scholarships.

Let me be clear - I do not ask for your sympathy for my friend. After all, like you and Valkyrie have said, it is your prerogative to express sympathy to whomever you see fit. I am merely laying out the facts for your consideration so you can make a more informed decision in determining whether or not Alanda would fall into your definition of 'children of the elite'.

Have a nice day.

renzila
10:59am Feb 10, 2011

This is only the cry of the little girls, that is going to miss her mom in her daily routines. She felt that her mother did not get fair judgment on what so ever case she is been indicted. Just put your self in her shoes, what would have you done ..?

Bank Century case is not in any chapter has complete the final saga , but somebody has to make the bad guys list fills with names ( and that name might not supposed to be on the list). Nevertheless this is shown how justice process is in Indonesia, very unpredictable on how it turn out ...


JohnnyCool
10:46am Feb 10, 2011

"I am sane enough not to understand the concept using my logic and common sense." Miss Alanda fails to realise that "logic and common sense" are in very short supply in Indonesia. Maybe she's too young to understand that, yet.

A teenaged Indonesian activist who published her first book at the age of 14 has launched an emotional online plea after prosecutors recommended a 10-year-jail term for her mother, a former senior Bank Century employee.

Alanda Kariza, 18, a teen novelist, youth activist and Indonesian ambassador at the Guildford Forum Global Changemakers in England in 2009, has become the nation’s latest cause célèbre after prosecutors demanded the lengthy jail term for her mother, Arga Tirta Kirana, the former head of Century’s legal corporate division.

“Mother is alleged to have been involved in the disbursement of a number of problematic credits, dubbed ‘command credits’ because the funds were withdrawn without the required procedures,” Alanda wrote on her personal blog. “A number of credits were withdrawn without mother’s signature as the head of the legal corporate division. It doesn’t make sense.”

“The command credit was based on the order of two people who might be familiar for those who followed the Century case in the news; Robert Tantular and Hermanus Hasan Muslim,” she continued.

“The two men have been detained and I think, the case should have been finished. Mother was only a witness in their cases because the credits were withdrawn because of their orders, not her’s. My question is, why was mother named a suspect? Nonsense.”

Alanda, a scholarship student at Bina Nusantara University, said she was shocked when her mother was named a suspect and “shattered” when the prosecution demanded a ten-year jail term on Jan. 25.

“Until finally on Jan. 25, 2011, a day before I had to take a test for my Introduction to Financial Accounting, I have to accept something which shattered all the dreams I had built for years. On that day, mother and papa went to the Central Jakarta District Court to hear the sentencing demand: 10 years in prison and a Rp 10 billion [$1.12 million] penalty. I couldn’t breathe, I could only feel my tears.”

She said that her mother did not deserve to be jailed for sentences longer than those of Tantular, a former Century co-owner who is serving a nine-year sentence for bank fraud, and infamous former tax man Gayus Tambunan, sentenced to just seven years in jail.

“Then why are they demanding 10 years for my mother? No matter how stupid or how weird I am, I am sane enough not to understand the concept using my logic and common sense. Is it because our family doesn’t have any money or is it because my mother is too nice?

“Is it the country which I used to trust, the country which is based on law? On behalf of Indonesia, I went to the International Global Changemakers. On behalf of Indonesia I took a summer course in Montana. On behalf of Indonesia, I had ideas and asked my friends to hold the Indonesian Youth Conference 2010. The same Indonesia which has shattered all of my dreams,” she wrote.

Nur Rochmat, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that the sentencing demand reflected what the prosecution had uncovered during the trial.

“The jail term recommended by prosecutors is based on testimonies by witnesses and the defendant, the evidence and the facts uncovered during the trial,” he claimed.

Alanda, the oldest of three, is a noted figure among Indonesian youth and teen-lit readers. Two years ago, she was invited by the British Council to participate in the Changemakers Global Forum project. For a week, she lived with 58 teenagers from all over the world in a village in Surrey, England.

Her bright ideas and enthusiasm charmed Indonesian Ambasador to England and Ireland Yuri Thamrin, who promised to help her find a scholarship if she was accepted at Oxford University.

In 2007, she published her first novel “Mint Chocolate Chips” at the age of 14 and is one of the founders of social community “The Cure for Tomorrow,” an Indonesian youth organization focusing on the environment.

Alanda was featured at My Jakarta column in the Jakarta Globe last September.

In the article, which can be read here, she said her mother drove her to achieve.

“I would say my mother; she’s not an activist, but my goal in life was to make her proud and somehow I found that this path is taking me there because I meet new people and achieve things I never thought I would achieve.”