In case you didn’t know…

The Jakarta Post (Monday, July 31, 2006)

Obituary:

Daniel S. Lev, an American political scientist who spent years doing research in the country and become an authoritative commentator on Indonesia has died. He was 72.

Lev died after a battle with lung cancer in Washington on Saturday night local time (Sunday afternoon in Jakarta).

The retired University of Washington professor is survived by a wife and two children.

Lev was no stranger to academics in the country and his numerous studies on Indonesia, especially those on the country’s politics, religion, law and culture, have been influential here.

Lev started his research on Indonesia in the early 1950s and has since worked with scholars, journalists, reformers and the military to further the cause of human rights in the country.

He began his teaching career at the University of California, Berkeley, and went to the University of Washington in the 1970s.

He retired from that university in 1999, after years as a political science professor and researcher. He also established the university’s political-science honors program.

The fruit of his decades-long study was memorialized in a collection of his classic essays published in 1990 by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES) titled Law and Politics.

During his decades of research on political conflict in Southeast Asia and Indonesia, Lev accumulated dozens of boxes filled with notes, documents and books, which he recently gave to young scholars in Indonesia.

Last June, Lev shipped the bulk of the materials to the Jakarta-based Center for Study of Law and Policy (PSHK), a non-governmental organization set up by 30 young lawyers who research legal reform.

Lev also embraced the language and culture of Indonesia and was fluent in Indonesian.

He often spoke with colleagues in Indonesian, and much of the material he sent back — his own writings and those of others — is in the language.

Lev’s passing has saddened many of his friends and colleagues in Jakarta.

“He (Lev) deeply loved Indonesia. He always kept an eye on the country and gave critical insight, especially regarding legal problems, selflessly,” acting chairman of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Patra M. Zein, said.

Bivitri Susanti of PSHK said that to honor Lev, the NGO would name its library after him. “We had hoped to officially open it before Pak Dan’s passing. But it’s too late now. We are very sad,” Bivitri told the Post.