Citizens have freedom to vote or not to vote, says observers
Citizens have freedom to vote or not to vote, says observers
JAKARTA (JP): Voting in a general election is every eligible
citizen's basic right and people breach no law if they do not
exercise it, observers said yesterday.
They agreed that what constitutes a violation of the law is to
encourage others to boycott a general election.
The observers were commenting on a pre-Easter message from the
Bishops Council of Indonesia read out in sermons Sunday which
said that refusing to vote was not a sin.
Rudini, former minister of home affairs who now chairs the
Institute for Strategic Studies of Indonesia, said to vote in a
general election would help improve public political awareness
and foster the nation's image internationally.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Forces faction
Suparman Achmad said that each citizen was free to vote or not to
vote.
But not to exercise the right would be a waste of a chance
which comes only once every five years, according to Suparman.
Senior constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra, argued
that the right brings about a consequence that everybody is free
either to vote or not.
He said that all forms of abuse of the freedom, including
persuading others not to vote, were violations of the country's
laws.
The 1985 General Election Law does explicitly state that to
vote is a right, but it does not say it is an obligation. Neither
does it discuss punitive measures against those who do not
exercise the right.
According to the law, the right to vote is given to a married
citizen or one aged at least 17 when the election committee
registers voters. Members of the now banned Indonesian Communist
Party, people who are suffering from mental disorders or
prisoners serving a sentence of five years or more are denied the
right.
The law also says that those who prevent others from using
their right to vote face a maximum of five years imprisonment,
while those who offer bribes to others to vote for a certain
contestant are subject to three years behind bars.
Nearly 125 million people are eligible to cast their votes on
May 29. The government allows only the United Development Party,
the dominant political group Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic
Party to contest the general election, the sixth held under the
New Order.
Observers say the Council of Bishops' message that touched on
politics was rare. Catholics account for about 3 percent of
Indonesia's 200 million people. Eighty-seven percent are Moslems.
In the 14-page message titled Concern and Hope, the bishops
conference reiterated its concern over the recent religious and
ethnic conflicts in which Christian and Chinese properties,
including dozens of churches, were torched or attacked.
The organization also expressed concern over what it saw as
the "moral decadence" that is attributed to the unrest.
Executive secretary of the bishops council, Matius
Notoseputro, said the church had no intention of persuading
people to boycott the election.
"We deliver the message in response to our people's questions.
We always urge our community to vote freely without pressure, and
the message serves as moral guidance," Notoseputro said.
The message, signed by council chairman Cardinal Julius
Darmaatmadja, says: "If you feel unrepresented and believe with
all your heart that your aspirations are not being channeled, we
can understand that you voice your responsibility and freedom by
not voting, and you are not sinning if you do not vote.
"On the contrary, if you face unbearably heavy pressures you
are allowed to comply with the demand rather than unduly suffer
greater losses. In principle, your votes are reliable from a
moral point of view."
Rudini said that the government had never put pressure on
people to go to polling booths or to vote for a certain political
group, knowing it would not educate them about political rights.
"The government has always encouraged people to vote
voluntarily to improve their political awareness."
He said the increasing number of people who use their right to
vote in the previous elections indicated a growing political
awareness.
More than 90 percent of eligible voters went to the polls in
each of the previous five elections.
Yusril, of the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia, rejected
Rudini's opinion, saying that the figures had nothing to do with
increasing public political awareness.
"The majority of Indonesians think that participating in the
election is an obligation. What kind of political awareness is it
if people cast their votes without knowing the reasons why," he
said. (amd)
Boycott -- Page 2