Election bill discriminates against disabled: Critics

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The election bill discriminates against people with physical disabilities, critics said here on Saturday.

The bill, which is being worked on at the home ministry before being proposed to the House of Representatives for endorsement, denies people with physical disabilities many of their political rights, such as the right to become legislators.

The government, especially the team working on the election bill, needs to provide an explanation to the public about the discriminative bill.

"All laws should give equal political opportunity to people with disabilities," said Hadar N. Gumay from the Center for Electoral Reform at a seminar titled "Democratization through the Election System for Disabled Indonesians".

The criticism revolves around article 32 of the election bill, which states that legislative candidates should "be in good physical and mental health proven by hospital records of a general health checkup."

The requirement that candidates must be in sound physical and mental health is not mentioned in the existing political election laws made in 1999.

Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa, a Golkar legislator, said, however, that the article was not designed to be discriminative. He said that it was designed to obtain qualified legislators.

"I believe there was no intention to limit the political rights of the disabled," Agun said.

He added that the regulation to boost public participation must be included either in an article in the bill or in a separate law.

An Interest Group member at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Fikri Thalib expressed similar concern over the revision to the Assembly's internal regulations that discriminates against people with physical disabilities.

According to Fikri the regulation that set literacy as a basic requirement contradicted the reform movement and human rights.

Speaking from his wheelchair, Fikri said the revision of the regulation had prevented 2 million visually impaired persons from becoming Assembly members.

Both the election bill and the Assembly decree would be a serious threat to the reform movement in creating a democratic system in the country, he said.

Imam B. Prasodjo from the General Elections Commission (KPU) vowed that he and other commission members would assist disabled people during the election.

Imam said his team would prepare regulations allowing family members to help the visually impaired exercise their political rights.

He added the team would also propose the use of Braille during the election.

The seminar on Saturday was organized in conjunction with the International Day of Disabled Persons on Dec. 3., attended mostly by people with physical disabilities, including the blind, deaf and amputees.

Article 32 : Basic requirements for legislative candidates: * able to speak, read and write Indonesian * a minimum education level of high school * to have sound physical and mental health, as proven by hospital records of a general health checkup