Yesterday, 5 april Edisius Riyadi Terre died in a hospital in Jakarta. Edi was an English translator, a lawyer and lecturer in law at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara. He collaborated with several KITLV researchers. Adriaan Bedner and Jacqueline Vel worked with him in the context of projects of access to justice, and Edi translated the book In search of Middle Indonesia, edited by Gerry van Klinken. Ward Berenschot worked with Edisius on various projects over the last 10 years. Ward wrote the following:

“Edi was funny, gifted, and he had a great heart for everybody around him. I first met Edi in 2010, when he came to work for a project that I coordinated, on legal aid and access to justice in Indonesia. We kept in touch ever since, sometimes working together: he coordinated research activities for me and last year he made a phenomenal Indonesian translation of the book I wrote with Edward Aspinall, Democracy for Sale.

Professionally, Edi’s heart beats for the rule of law in Indonesia. From working for ELSAM, to becoming a lawyer and teaching law in university, Edi’s working life was motivated by a hope of what the rule of law could mean. I always enjoyed listening to his hopeful philosophizing about, as he called it, ‘kedaulatan hukum’. He was very active promoting public debate and discussions, setting up various discussion groups and clubs around his hometown Tangerang. He used these discussions to keep his idealism alive: as he wrote in an email in 2016, ‘we live our lives in a simple way despite any idealism which are still ringing in our heads’.

In this way I always felt inspired talking to him. All the more because he had a great gift for language. While I am not the best judge of this, it seems to me that his translations always read as if they weren’t translations: he had great skill turning academic English into clear and accessible Indonesian.

But the main reason I enjoyed his company so much was he was such a warm-hearted person. He was a ‘spirit-lifter’. With his positive energy he had a great gift for cheering people up. I will miss him dearly. I wish his wife Eti all the best in dealing with this loss.”