Choosing leaders freely

Thomas Hidya Tjaya, in his article Gus Dur and the KPU (The Jakarta Post, May 11), supports the law preventing a blind person from being president on the grounds that eyesight is necessary for a president.

He forgets that democracy is a system in which the people choose their leaders. Thus, barring Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid not only denies blind people the right to stand for the presidency but also voters the right to choose their leaders freely.

This may not worry the writer because he personally would never vote for a blind candidate in any circumstances. In his opinion, a person who cannot see the envelopes being passed under the table will not know how to combat corruption.

Perhaps legislative members had the same thought when they decided to exclude blind candidates. On the other hand, perhaps they saw the law on presidential elections as a chance to nobble their rivals before they even got to the start line. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Golkar party, which are large parties, managed to dilute the criteria intended to block Megawati and Akbar Tandjung, but the National Awakening Party (PKB), which is a small party, got shut out.

In theory, as Thomas says, citizens can challenge the arguments of state institutions. But in practice, Indonesia's state institutions listen only to a few people and special interest groups, mostly in Jakarta, mostly wealthy and sometimes violent. They are impervious to the voices of the poor and the marginalized.

But for one fleeting moment every few years the voice of the poorest farmer and mother of six from a tiny house on Mount Merapi becomes equal to the voice of the richest corruptor or the most powerful bureaucrat in Jakarta. That is in the polling booth on the day of the presidential election.

But even then the elite cannot let her be equal. "The government is far too important to be chosen by some dumb women who might prefer Gus Dur to Wiranto et al", they will say, albeit in a linguistic disguise: "Only candidates we approve will be eligible to stand."

So it is quite possible to have disabled candidates in a healthy democracy, and equally possible to have healthy candidates in a disabled democracy.

JOHN HARGREAVES
Jakarta