Under the Suharto regime, Toga Tambunan spent 13 years detained without trial in an assortment of jails and prison camps. He was beaten for reasons such as planting flowers that unexpectedly bloomed a communist red. When he was finally released in 1978 he was shunned by a father-in-law ashamed of his past as a political prisoner.

So, more than seven years after Suharto's 1998 fall, the former poet and journalist believes he has a right to be compensated for his suffering. Or at least to have it formally recognised in the hope that future generations of Indonesians might avoid the same fate.