Desiderata Utomo

Desiderata Utomo interned with the Land Law Unit at LAC in January of 2001 while on summer break from her law studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background.

I mostly grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, which I call home. In the coming semester I will start my fourth year of a combined Science and Law course at the University of Melbourne, Australia. I had done previous human rights NGO work in Indonesia and was keen to experience how the multitude of problems facing a country as troubled as Cambodia is tackled.

How did you hear about Legal Aid of Cambodia?

I did a search on the net for legal internships and found the LAC website. I read the website and thought, this is exactly where I want to be this summer. I then contacted Francis James, who is on the Board of Advisors in New York, who referred me to George Cooper, the foreign consultant to the land unit at LAC. George was my supervisor through the internship.

How did you make up your mind to go?

I basically really wanted to go from the very beginning, so the minute I got the acceptance email, I knew that this was just right for me. Somehow I never had a doubt about going. Once I decide that it was okay for me to be absent from home in that time, I went and organized my flight ticket to Phnom Penh and started researching on Cambodia.

Tell me about the process that got you to Cambodia.

I rang several travel agents and the cheapest flight form Jakarta to Phnom Penh I could find cost 500 USD. I was in Jakarta at the time, so I rang up the Cambodian Embassy there and inquired about visa requirements. I basically needed to fill out a form, hand over passport photos and 20 USD, leave my passport overnight and pick it up the next day. I got visa number 01/01 from the Cambodian Embassy. It was early in the year, and I must have been at least one of the first Indonesians to enter Cambodia in the new millennium!

The total flying time from Jakarta to Phnom Penh was about three hours, but the twelve-hour overnight stop over in Kuala Lumpur make it feel like I was traveling to some distant part of the world. The ultra-modern Kuala Lumpur airport must currently be on the world’s newest and most spectacular looking airports. I spent most of the time reading my recently acquired books on Cambodia and even managed to get a couple of hours sleep. I was met at the Pochentong airport by LAC staff holding up a sign saying my name. They told me that they were taking me to the office. On the way, I got Teav and Vannideth to teach me a few words of Khmer. It sounded way different from what I thought it would sound when I was learning them off a phrase book.

What did you do to prepare for the trip?

Literature on Cambodia is incredibly hard to get hold of in Indonesia. Even travel guide books on Cambodia are scarcely available. The Cambodian Embassy in Jakarta did not have much available either. So I had to rely on the one travel guide book on Cambodia we had at home and web-searches for information about the country, its recent history, the people and the culture. I went shopping for toiletries and other stuff I thought I’d need, but a well-stocked supermarket and pharmacies are within walking distance from the office so running out of things was never a problem.

Did you take any health precautions?

I got booster shots for most vaccines a few years ago, so I didn’t get any more especially for the trip. I brought with me a few of the usual medicines: paracetamol, antihistamines, immodium, motion sickness pills, and malaria pills which I never took because Phnom Penh and the areas I traveled to weren’t malaria areas. I never really had to take any medicines when I was there, though.

I loved going out to eat street foods, from which I got the inevitable stomach complaints. But I was lucky that mine were only minor, and I never got sick otherwise. I loved the food – Cambodians eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, fish and rice. My favorite drink is Tikalok, a creamy fruit smoothie made with different tropical fruits, condensed milk, crushed ice and sometimes an egg, bought from street-side stalls. Again, I was lucky to only get sick from one out of the dozen or so I had.

What did your friends and parents think of you going to Cambodia?

My friends and parents knew how much I wanted to go and were very supportive. But the closer it was to the departure date, the more nervous my parents got about their little daughter venturing to Cambodia on her own. My mother asked around about the situation in Cambodia to her friends in the diplomatic sector and was told that “Phnom Penh is safer than Jakarta.” That helped.

What did you bring with you?

I packed mostly lightweight clothing: mainly slacks and shirts to wear at work and a few casual clothes. I also brought knee-length skirts which I never ended up wearing. Everybody wears long skirts or slacks, which also help to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Long-sleeved shirts are good protection against the sun, especially when traveling during the day on a moto or on top of a boat. The only warm piece of clothing I had with me was a jumper, which I only needed on the plane to and from Cambodia and in the freezing Kuala Lumpur airport during the stop-over. The latter was the only time I wished I’d brought more warm clothes.

I also brought my laptop, a radio-alarm clock, a couple books to read, and a torch which I never needed because Silaka, the NGO at which I stayed, had a generator so I never had to suffer complete darkness. Power cuts during the day when I was at the office meant no computers and no air-conditioning, but they don’t usually go for very long. It would also be wise to have sunblock, insect repellent and wipes for sanitation when traveling to the provinces. The Russian Market in Phnom Penh sells export-quality backpacks for only a fraction of their price once they reach American shores, so I didn’t need to stuff everything into the one big suitcase I had brought with me when I left.

What were some of your first impressions of Phnom Penh upon arrival? Of LAC?

Having grown up in a developing country, Cambodia wasn’t a shock to the system as it might otherwise be. Phnom Penh is what I imagine Jakarta would have looked like thirty years ago, with some roads still unpaved and lots and lots of motorbikes. Traffic is pretty chaotic, worse than Indonesia or even China, and I learned quickly to look in all directions before crossing the street, because that is exactly where one can expect anything, especially motos, to appear from.

I had seen pictures of the LAC office before, and they proved to be true to its real form. Although at first the surroundings looked more like a suburb to me, it is located in a pretty central area of Phnom Penh. I really felt safe in the office. There were always two security guards looking after it. Later on, I’d sometimes stay back late to finish up my work. As long as I have my transport home arranged, that was never a problem.

Tell me about some of the projects and assignments you worked on.

On my first day at work, it was decided that I was to handle two projects relating to the troubled province of Banteay Meanchey, in the Northwest of Cambodia, bordering Thailand. One was drafting a proposal for the set-up of an LAC human rights office there, and the other was a statement on the human rights situation in Banteay Meanchey. A couple of hours later I was making phone calls to several people from various organizations, following up some previous discussions between them and LAC.

The next day I sat through what was possibly the worst taxi ride of my life, 15 hours long on mostly very bumpy roads with about 40 other people, heading to “Cambodia’s Wild Wild West,” Banteay Meanchey. During the next three days I visited and talked with human rights workers from different organizations based in the provincial capital Sisophon and in the town of Poipet to collect data and information. I also met with local military and police officials as well as many victims of human rights violations. The first week was action-packed and on it went from there. It was very heady at first, which I really really enjoyed. But the best thing about the work I was doing was knowing that I was concretely producing something useful for LAC.

Tell me a bit about your interactions with the staff at LAC.

One of the best things about interning with LAC, which also makes the best memories to take home, are the friendships that you form with the people you work with. I met and became good friends with so many amazing people at LAC. I am a big fan of everybody at the land unit. They are dedicated people who work very hard for “the people,” the thousands and thousands of poor families who are their clients. The lawyers are constantly busy with their many cases.

I especially love Yim Simene, the land unit lawyer who has been with LAC from day one. She is a grand lady and very tough lawyer with the warmest laugh. I became very close friends with the two assistants to the land unit. Through our work together, I noticed how much integrity and principle there were in these people. I count myself lucky to have been able to work with and become friends with them. Even on the very day I arrived in Phnom Penh, Sokha, one of the assistants at the land unit, already invited me to come to her home the next day. The family home was a gorgeous wooden house on stilts, where I met her whole very friendly family and neighbors, and had my first taste of yummy fruits off the trees in the backyard.

Because I was doing the budget proposal for the LAC Banteay Meanchey Human Rights Office, I was a frequent visitor to the finance office and also became good friends with the people there. The assistant to the finance office and I apparently look so alike that some people have mistaken us for each other. We now jokingly call each other “twin sister.” Peung Yok Hiep, LAC’s administrative vice director, who has also been with LAC since its beginnings, has the kindest, most generous heart and takes care that everybody, including interns, are well-looked after. Vannideth at the information desk must be LAC’s jewel. The place would not be the same without her. So many great people at LAC, I love them all.

Did you get to travel at all within Cambodia? Where did you go/What did you do?

Other than a four-day work-related trip to Banteay Meanchey, I traveled to Siem Reap to see the famous Angkor temples. Taking the boat to Siem Reap was really nice with interesting views of the Tonle Sap. But sitting outside with the wind and the midday sun in my face was not so nice. I should have had more sun protection with me. No description can really compare to being there and seeing Angkor Wat for yourself.

People I spoke to who went to the Angkor temples a few years ago remarked on the drastic change in recent years – how much more tourists were around nowadays and how less serene the whole experience was because of this. When I came there were lots of other tourists around, but we bring lots of good business for locals and when I sat on the top level of Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise, there was nobody in sight except my travel companion. By that time, waking up early in the morning had become a daily habit, as office hours were from 7:30 to 5:30, with a two-hour break for lunch and siesta from 12 till 2pm. But even if it wasn’t, that experience was definitely worth the early rise.

Any final thoughts on your time spent with LAC and its staff? How has it affected your future plans and desire to practice a certain type of law?

My long-term plan has always been to go home to Indonesia and work in the area of cross-cultural legal development. As an intern at LAC I got a lot of insight on legal aid and the more general human rights work in Cambodia, both within LAC as well as in collaboration with other organizations: the upsides and downsides of things. The most amazing thing was working with so many great people. That makes the whole experience just overwhelmingly positive. I think that my internship at LAC was an important step in this direction.