The public wants military to use voting rights: Survey

The public wants military to use voting rights: Survey

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In contrast to opposition from many legislators, most people
support the move to grant voting rights to the Indonesian
Military (TNI) and National Police in the 2004 general election,
a survey found on Wednesday.

At least 52 percent of the 1,250 people polled by the
Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and
Information (LP3ES) said that the right to vote should now be
restored to servicemen and police officers.

However, 42 percent of the respondents wanted the move
postponed as they believed that military and police personnel
were not yet ready for the move, which could "divide their
ranks".

The respondents, all teen-agers, were polled by telephone in
10 major cities across the country -- Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya,
Medan, Palembang, Denpasar, Banjarmasin, Makassar, Mataram and
Jayapura.

They included those (41 percent) who claimed to be supporters
of major political parties.

A new bill on general elections, now in the House of
Representatives awaiting deliberation, allows the TNI and the
police to vote and to be elected in the 2004 elections.

This, however, will automatically force the military and
police to get out of the legislature in 2004, instead of 2009 as
they have demanded.

Many House of Representatives' members have opposed the
restoration of servicemen and police officers' political rights,
and TNI Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto has said that soldiers
would not use the franchise even if were extended to them.

However, the survey showed that almost all supporters of major
political parties, except for the National Mandate Party (PAN) --
who were among the polled respondents -- backed the extension of
the franchise to servicemen and police officers.

The survey also revealed that most of the respondents wanted
the number of parties contesting the next elections to be limited
to not more than 10.

"The field data shows that 80 percent of the people think that
too many parties contending the elections would only serve to
confuse the voters," it added.

Around 200 parties have registered with the Ministry of
Justice and Human Rights to contest the 2004 elections. But most
respondents were unable to name the new political groups.

According to the poll, 64 percent of the people wanted the
government to scrap subsidies for parties to prevent unscrupulous
politicians from establishing political groups for the sole
purpose of receiving state aid.

This demand received the endorsement of most party supporters,
who said their political organizations should be financially
independent.

The survey also rejected the participation of the president,
vice president, ministers, governors, regents and other state
officials in campaiging ahead of elections, unless they resigned
from office or took a leave of absence.

"There is no guarantee that they will not misuse state
facilities for their campaigns due to the lack of standard
control mechanisms," the survey added.

According to the research, only 15 percent of the respondents
disagreed with this conclusion.

The ban on campaigning should also be extended to military and
police officers, it added.

The survey said most Indonesians also doubted the independence
of the General Elections Commission (KPU) as its general
secretariat was under the control of the home affairs minister as
stipulated in the new bill.

Nor did the respondents (61 percent) believe that the KPU
members elected by the House would be "neutral" in carrying out
their duties. The survey did not say why.