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