On soldiers' rights to vote

On soldiers' rights to vote

Is it consistent with democracy to deny some 420,000
Indonesian citizens who happen to wear the uniform of the
military or the police their basic right to vote for reasons that
are either questionable or totally irrational?

The Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief General Endriartono
Sutarto repeatedly stated that soldiers are not yet ready to vote
because of their lack of political experience. What reason does
the general have to believe that soldiers have less political
experience than the rest of the Indonesian people who were also
not given the opportunity to gain political experience because
they were deprived of their political rights for three decades?

Besides, why should soldiers not be mature enough to vote, if
on the other hand they are considered as being mature enough to
risk their lives when fighting rebels, fanatic lunatics or
criminals?

The Army Chief of Staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu said "We
lose our individual rights the moment we join the military" (The
Jakarta Post, June 24, 2002). Does this mean that those who join
the military have also to leave behind their basic rights as
citizens?

PPP backs TNI 'boycott' of election reads a headline in the
Post on Sept. 9. Such support for the military's move to
discourage its soldiers from using their voting rights comes not
as a surprise, as it can be assumed that the majority of the
soldiers will give their votes to secular-nationalist parties
rather than to the United Development Party (PPP) or other small
religious parties.

But the most incredible statement concerning the soldiers'
right to vote came from Kusmanto Anggoro of the Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He said: "I think we
must give some punishment to TNI for its past violations by
denying them the right to vote at least until 2009 ...". Does
this mean that all members of the military and of the police who
served for three decades under Soeharto's New Order regime
deserve a collective punishment by taking away their right to
vote? Kusmanto does obviously ignore the fact that "...the right
to vote relates to a person not an institution..." as has been
rightly stated by the Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno (the
Post, Sept. 10).

Finally, the question arises: who is less prepared for
democracy, the soldiers or those who want -- for whatever reason
-- to make them second class citizens by denying them the right
to vote?

HILDE MAY

Jakarta