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.