KPU's authority

KPU's authority

I thank Thomas Hidya Tjaya for his article Finding the best
way to choose our leaders (The Jakarta Post, May 19).

He comments that "we express the freedom to choose our leaders
through state institutions, including the General Elections
Commission (KPU)".

It would be more accurate to say that the KPU has legal
authority to manage the elections, enabling it to uphold or to
restrict freedom. When the home ministry had this authority it
restricted freedom by, for example, allowing only three parties,
and the current KPU is following a similar path by allowing only
five presidential candidates and excluding one, who also happens
to have the longest record of defending democracy and human
rights.

According to Thomas, the majority of people accept without
question the right of the KPU to throw out Abdurrahman "Gus Dur"
Wahid. On the other hand, if the KPU issued a decree barring
women candidates then more people might object because Megawati
has more supporters than Gus Dur and discrimination against women
is a hotter issue than discrimination against the blind. In any
case, counting the number of people who accept the KPU's decision
without question only shows how many people will acquiesce to the
erosion of their own freedoms. It does not make the KPU's
decision less repressive.

Nor is it acceptable to suppress the rights of the blind
merely because "for many people, the requirements for physical
and mental health appear commonsensical".

Guessing how many people are prejudiced against blind people
is a job for survey institutes, not the KPU.

JOHN HARGREAVES
Jakarta