'We all guilty by omission for allowing discrimination'

Former members of the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and their relatives have suffered almost four decades of systematic repression by the government. Now, it has reinstated their right to vote and run in future legislative elections. The Jakarta Post talked to two residents about the issue.

Baby Jim Aditya, 42, is an artist and HIV/AIDS campaign activist. She lives in Cilandak, South Jakarta with her husband and two children:

The reinstatement of their (PKI members and relatives) political rights is a must. The government should have done this earlier. But we are all guilty by omission, as a society that allowed this mistake to go on for such a long time.

We must stop being so judgmental of people. It's unjust to blame children for what their parents did. Many descendants of former PKI members know nothing about the party or its ideology.

Astrid Sari G, 20, is a student of a private university in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, where she also lives:

Not all former PKI members really favored communism as their ideology. Many of them became members of the party due to deception or even terror.

I think it's also unfair to punish the offspring of those former PKI members. They have nothing to do with their parents' wrongdoings. It has been long time since they have been discriminated against for something they did not do. When will all this silly policy end?

Even convicts after they serve their time have a chance to live in society in a normal way. An ex-convict's children are not treated like convicts too, right?

--The Jakarta Post