Dandhy Dwi Laksono is a man almost anyone certainly doesn’t want to mess with.
The obvious reason is his slightly intimidating posture. The 35-year-old has a bigger-than-average frame that may force people to think twice before dealing with him.
But more than that, it is his life story that persistently shows his bravery against everyone and everything that has tried to challenge his idealism.
A close friend describes the documentary filmmaker as a perfectionist and an idealist who will fight for his principles to the end.
A journalist at heart, Dandhy is a figure who believes that his main duty is to bring facts to the people and, for that, he is ready to confront anyone who wants to get in his way to revealing the truth.
Such strong principles often bring him trouble and even near-death experiences.
Involved in numerous in-depth reporting in conflict areas and high-profile cases like the murder of human rights activist Munir, Dandhy has experienced some strange, unexplained incidents that could have jeopardized his life.
He shares one story about the time someone unscrewed the bolts on his car’s front wheels.
“When covering sensitive issues, there will be strange life-threatening events that follow, but no one can ever prove the correlation between the two,” Dandhy concludes from his investigative reporting on the Munir case and tax scandals involving an agribusiness giant.
Unfortunately, such threats are not only targeted at him. He says his wife was once photographed by two strange men after getting off a bus.
Dandhy is used to dealing with threats and opposition from various parties while working as an investigative journalist.
At the start of his career in the late 1990s, when press freedom was still being fought for, his enemy then was only the incumbent government, which did not want to lose its control over media.
Since the press was granted greater freedoms, his list of targets completely changed and included corporate powers and people with money, following the emergence of economic interest in media businesses.
Refusing to succumb to any interests, Dandhy reveals the shocking fact that he has left nine jobs during his 14-year career as a journalist in order to not compromise his principles.
One of the more memorable exits came when he was fired as a news producer for local TV station SCTV.
Dandhy believes his dismissal was triggered by his reporting on the military operation in Aceh, which might have upset high-ranking officials.
Another popular story was when he resigned from another private TV station, RCTI, after feeling unsatisfied with the work of the editorial room that, he says, had been interfered with by powerful businesspeople.
With such a track record, it is fair to call him a rebel in the media business that seems to have lost its grip due to rising political and economic pressures.
But such labels were attached to him even before he started his journalistic career.
Hailing from Lumajang, a small city in East Java, the teenage Dandhy rebelled against his parents when choosing a career.
His civil-servant parents had high hopes that their beloved child would also follow in their footsteps.
In fact, Dandhy came close to becoming a government official after getting an offer to enter the School of Public Administration (STPDN). But he rejected it and instead went to Padjajaran University in Bandung, West Java.
His decision did not only upset his family but also the entire Lumajang administration.
“I wanted to go to college,” Dandhy, who went on to graduate in international relations, explains.
It was during these college days that Dandhy realized that he was destined for journalism.
But little do people know that behind all the rebellious stories about his journalistic career, it turns out that his decision to jump into the media in the first place was merely incidental.
“I used to join a music band in Lumajang. But hiring a music studio in Bandung was more expensive than in Lumajang. So I tried to find an extracurricular activity that involves no money and in the end I joined the campus press,” Dandhy laughs.
What appeared to be a silly decision became a life-altering one in the end. After years of writing in the campus publication, the aspiring musician finally decided to become journalist after graduation.
He started working in the media in 1998 as a reporter in the now-defunct business tabloid Kapital. During the course of his career, Dandhy has experienced all forms of media, from print to radio and audiovisual.
In the end, it is documentary making that is his driving passion.
His career highlights includes being named best journalist by the Alliance of Independent Journalists in 2008, for his investigative reporting on Munir.
After having several bad experiences from working at media companies, including the latest one with RCTI, he founded his own production house called WatchdoC, in 2008.
Aside from receiving orders from TV stations and corporations, his company also produces non-sponsored documentary projects dealing with human rights issues.
Its initial project is Alkinemokiye, which tells the story of mine workers at the Freeport mining site in Papua during their major strike last year. It is available for free-viewing on YouTube.
The 60-minute video created controversy because of its one-sided angle that not only displeases the mining firm but also raises questions, from a journalistic point of view.
“I am indeed running away from good journalistic methods for certain issues. Good journalism suits particular issues, but for other problems, I don’t think that’s enough,” he says, again showing his rebellious side.
Apart from his rebellious spirit and tough character, Dandhy is surprisingly a person who is fun to talk to.
The laughter from the fan of American filmmaker Michael Moore punctuated an interview with The Jakarta Post that took place in his new spacious home-office in Bekasi, East Jakarta.
Sitting on the back veranda of the house, he shares almost everything he can for more than an hour, including his ambition to produce an influential documentary piece that can unveil the truth on a sensitive subject.
He is keeping that subject secret for the time being.
Behind the friendly smiles, hearing him speak about his future projects shows Dandhy as the fearless rebellious journalist whom we should all be aware of.