by Mathias Hariyadi

Indonesia’s prelates deny media reports that claim they are encouraging voters to abstain. Instead they want the faithful to vote according to their conscience. They also warn against the use of religious symbols to win votes.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Indonesia’s Catholic bishops have issued a statement with regard to the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for 8 July. In it they urge the faithful “to vote according to their conscience for the best candidate possible.” They also deny rumours circulating in the country that suggest that they would like to see Catholics abstain. On the contrary, in their press release the prelates explain that they hope that voting will strengthen the values of “pluralism and national unity” and reiterate the supremacy of the “rule of Law” against any attempt to introduce Sharia in the country.

The controversy began at the start of last week when Indonesian newspapers published reports suggesting that the Laity Commission of Indonesian Bishops’ Conference was urging “Indonesian Catholics to abstain” from voting.

In order to clear the air Commission Secretary Fr YR Eddy Purwanto stated that the faithful “should use their judgement and heart to elect the best presidential candidate.” At the same time, he noted that if anyone is thinking about abstaining he or she ought to do this on the basis of their own “moral conscience.”

Three candidates are vying for the presidency. They include outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the Democrat Party, whose running mate is Boediono, governor of the Indonesian central bank; Golkar’s Jusuf Kalla who is running with General Wiranto; and former President Megawati Setiawati (2001-2004) of the Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle, whose vice-presidential candidate is General Prabowo Subianto,

For Indonesia’s Bishops’ Conference (KWI), voters must “choose the best for the whole country.”

KWI’s chairman, Mgr Martin Situmorang, said one of the priorities in this election must be to “maintain the spirit of pluralism and national unity,” a principle that is rooted in the notion of “unity within diversity” which inspired the nation’s founders.

For the prelates this diversity has been a source of enrichment for the country but is currently in “serious danger.”

Making matters worse, the three presidential candidates have each been accused of corruption.

As AsiaNews noted recently, the danger of using religious symbols in politics is becoming a real possibility with all its dangerous implications for national unity and pluralism.

For this reason the Church is “strongly opposed to any use of religious beliefs to stir negative sentiments among” people from “different religious denominations.”

The use of the Sharia as the basis of local laws can only lead to confessional divisions and the persecution of minorities.

• indonesia
• presidential
• elections
• 8
• july
• catholic
• bishops
• conference
• abstention
• catholics
• voting