March 2010 Archives

IKON protest, Wahyu is far left with raised arm. The banner reads "prison is not a solution for drug addicts." Photo courtesy IKON.

By Anton Muhajir

After three weeks of hospitalization, Bali and Indonesia's best-known drug user rights advocate I Gusti Ngurah Wahyunda passed away in early March. Wahyu, 31 years old, was the founder of the Indonesian Drug User Solidarity Association (IDUSA) and coordinator of Ikatan Korban Napza (IKON), a network of drug victims in Bali.

I honor him as a friend, activist, and an innovative fighter who built a movement to defend the human rights of drug users.

April 1, 1978 - March 6, 2010

After being treated for three weeks, I Gusti Ngurah Wahyunda (or Wahyu) died on March 6 at Sanglah Hospital, Denpasar, Bali. Wahyu was the founder and coordinator of IKON Bali, a group of victims of narcotics, psychotropic and other addictive substances that fights for the human rights of that community, and the program manager of Yakeba, a Balinese harm reduction organization.

Wahyu was himself a former injecting drug user who had undergone rehabilitation at Yakeba. His experiences as a former IDU and his connections with fellow survivors at national and international meetings led him to organize IDUs in Bali to found IKON. Working with Wahyu, IKON has done ground-breaking research,  advocacy, outreach and media work on the problem of police abuse against IDU in Bali.

In August 2009, Asia Catalyst spent a week assisting Wahyu and colleagues at IKON with strategic planning. We also joined together to host a candlelit barbecue party on the beach in Bali for 100 Asian AIDS advocates and their supporters. Wahyu was an inspiring leader, and a warm and humorous friend and colleague; it was a privilege to work alongside him, even for a short time. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family in Indonesia.

For more about IKON, please visit www.ikonbali.org.

By Florence Au

India is a country of great diversity and contradictions.  In a country of 1.1 billion people, there were 465 million mobile subscribers at the end of September 2009. Yet, in the same period India also had the largest number of people in the world without access to electricity. The per capita electricity consumption rate in India is 480Wh/capita in 2005; lower than the rates of Brazil, Zimbabwe and Mexico, among other developing countries.  In response to this challenge, the Indian government has launched an ambitious new program to provide electricity to 100% of households by 2012.

At times of change, start-up organizations should ask themselves what they want to become. If you want to remain independent, what is your future plan?  Do you eventually want to be absorbed into a larger organization?  Will you shut down once the need you're serving is met?  NGOs should know how to shape their own future before others make the decision for them.