A suicide note written by a 22-year-old rights activist who set himself on fire near the presidential palace in December was a message about morality that should serve as a warning to society, a rights group said yesterday.

“Curse injustice, curse ignorance, curse poverty, curse pain and sorrow, curse evil powerful people and curse criminals … after I have no more feelings,” said the note written by Sondang Hutagalung, who was a Bung Karno University student and head of the Association of Young Marhaenists’ Actions for Indonesian People.

“The message is not merely an expression of his frustration. It is his great disappointment. Many people would not burn themselves like he did,” said Haris Azhar, coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence.

“He risked his life like ‘a fighter for justice,’ who will never see the fruit of his struggle,” Azhar added at a public discussion at the commission’s office.

The discussion called:  Revealing Sondang’s Message to Uphold Human Rights was organized by the association Hutagalung used to head and the commission to remember the young activist, who carried out his final protest December 7.

He died in hospital three days later.

“It’s important Sondang’s note is made public since its content shows how passionate he was over human rights and how they should be upheld,” Azhar said.

“We, as [his] friends and people who care about human rights issues, are morally obliged to continue his struggle,” he added.

Also speaking at the discussion was Kyai Maman Imanulhaq, who heads the Al-Mizan Islamic School in Jatiwangi, in West Java.

He warned President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that if he fails to grasp the meaning of Hutagalung’s message, he will still face criticism by the people long after his leadership ends in 2014.