Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Five years ago, they were the leading lights of a reform movement that toppled the regime of former President Suharto, surviving such horrors as abduction and torture by the Indonesian army.
But today, some of these erstwhile student and human-rights activists have been accused of losing their way. Some have become establishment figures.
Two, in particular, are now courting controversy with their suspected association with the thuggish elements, either in the military or the underworld. Last week, thug groups attacked Tempo magazine's office and assaulted its editors for publishing an article suggesting that businessman Tommy Winata was behind the massive fire in the Tanah Abang market.
But, as it turned out, the real surprise was the identity of Tommy's lawyer: Desmond Mahendra. In 1998, then a human-rights lawyer, Mr Mahendra was among the dozens of activists kidnapped by a unit of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) for links to political dissidents.
That he now represents the businessman baffled many, because of Tommy's reputed close links to the military and the police. Indeed, Mr Mahendra said he became involved with Tommy just a year after his kidnapping, but refuted accusations that he has "sold out".
He told The Straits Times: "I have not changed at all since I was kidnapped; my conscience remains. I just want to defend the truth – which is that Tommy has been slandered." Mr Mahendra's fellow activist in the old days, Mr Pius Lustrilanang, is also under fire for his current job.
In April 1998, Mr Lustrilanang defied the threats to his life and family to make public the fact that he had been kept in captivity for two months by military men before being set free. These days, he heads the Red Alert Brigade (Brigass), a youth wing of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) with a reputation for being thugs for hire.
Mr Lustrilanang is said to have close links with some military officers, who are providing training for his militia group. Yet other kidnap victims, including Mr Haryanto Taslam, who is now a PDI-P legislator, have become politicians or businessmen.
But there are others like Mr Nezar Patria and Mr Faisol Reza, who continue to challenge the establishment.
Both were abducted for two days for their activities in the underground anti-government movement, the People's Democratic Party (PRD), and were blindfolded, beaten and administered with electric shocks.
They were later dropped off at a police station. After he was freed, Mr Reza was active for a while in PRD, when it became a small leftist political party in 1999. He says now he has given up on politics, having been disappointed by the elites he helped bring to power.
"Megawati has repeated the way of the old regime," he charged. "Her leadership is corrupt and is full of compromises with the old power centres, including the military." Of the 68 activists abducted then, 13 are still missing.
Mr Mugiyanto, also a 1998 kidnap victim, set up the Association of Family of Missing People in Indonesia (IKOHI) last year to pressure the government to reopen the case on these missing people.
He says of the experience of being a kidnap victim: "It can make you become more resistant or it can make you give up your cause or even collaborate with your captors. In my case, it has strengthened my resolve."