Elections and civil

Elections and civil servants' votes

From Media Indonesia

A recent story in the papers reported the public's pessimism about the role of civil servants in the upcoming general election.

It was reported that about 40 percent of civil servants are members of the Corps of Civil Servants of the Republic of Indonesia and will vote for the Golkar Party. The rest will vote for other parties.

In my opinion, however, the results of the 1999 elections showed that our civil servants could be considered neutral. If they had not assumed a neutral stance, Golkar would have secured more votes from civil servants. However, Golkar received fewer votes from civil servants in several provinces in Java and Sumatra. Clearly, civil servants voted for other political parties.

Regarding the 2004 elections, Golkar has never said that civil servants should vote for Golkar. On the other hand, some new and old parties have fielded civil servants as legislative candidates. This is in violation of the government regulation prohibiting civil servants from taking part in political activities, either as members of a political party or as members of a party's executive board.

VELERY E. SETIAWAN

Bengkulu