Jakarta – In a rare political statement the country's Catholic Church has told its faithful that it would not be a sin to refuse to vote in this year's general election.
But a senior Indonesian military officer warned on Monday that encouraging people not to vote was against the law.
The pre-Easter apostolic letter by the Indonesian Bishops' Conference headed by Cardinal Julius Darmaatmaja, read out in many Catholic churches last week, said that ''the Catholics should really feel free in expressing their attitude in the general election".
''If you really do not feel represented and are sure with all your heart that your aspirations are not channelled, we can understand that you voice your responsibility and freedom by not voting, and you are not sinning if you do not vote," the statement said.
It is rare for Indonesia's Catholic Church to give statements on political matters.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-populated nation, with almost 90 per cent of its 200 million people following Islam. About 3 per cent of the population are Catholics.
When Lieutenant-General Syarwan Hamid was asked about the Catholic Church's statement on not voting, he said that ''to encourage people not to vote is against the law", the Republika daily newspaper reported.
Gen Hamid emphasised the importance of voting and said he ''appreciate(s) all parties which... encourage as many people as possible to vote".
Indonesia's three official parties _ the United Development Party (PPP), the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) and the ruling Golkar party _ will compete in May's elections for 425 parliamentary seats. Golkar has won every election since 1971.
The authorities have been publicly criticised for calling on all civil servants, about six million people, to vote for Golkar. It is also widely known that civil servants' spouses and children are unofficially required to vote for Golkar in polls.
The Catholic Church's statement said that ''if you are under intense pressure (to vote), you may follow those orders rather than suffer the consequences".
Lawyer Trimulya Suryadi said on Monday that while it was true that the election laws prohibited people from encouraging others not to vote, the church's statement could not be ''encouragement".
''It is merely giving information and an explanation to Catholics," he said.
The church also expressed its concern in the same document for the future of religious freedom in Indonesia. In recent months mobs of Muslims have gone on the rampage against Christians.