Jakarta. As political campaigns heat up ahead of the April 9 legislative elections, critics have voiced concerns that candidates have been too wrapped up in political rivalries to address controversial issues, such as family planning, tobacco control and human rights.
National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) head Fasli Jalal said that no prominent candidates had mentioned Indonesia’s population boom or family-planning policy during the official campaign period.
“It seems like population and family planning issues are hard sells and not popular, and [candidates] have failed to realize that these issues will affect all sectors including food sufficiency, poverty, unemployment and many others,” he said.
Fasli said that most legislative candidates were too fixated on popular issues such as corruption eradication and free education.
He said the candidates might not have complex understandings of population and family planning issues or that they simply wanted to avoid controversy in a nation where traditional Muslim values hold mainstream sway, but that lawmakers’ ability to address these issues would determine the outcomes of crucial policy questions.
He said the BKKBN especially hoped lawmakers would find the political will to address Indonesian marriage law.
Under a 1974 law, 16-year-olds are eligible to marry, but child advocates have been pushing to raise the age to 18.
Candidates have also faced criticism for failing to hold Indonesia’s powerful tobacco industry to task.
Members of the Indonesian tobacco-control community urged voters not to back legislative candidates who supported the tobacco industry at the expense of the nation’s health.
“Vote for the pro-people, pro-health and anti-discrimination candidates, do not vote for anti-tobacco-control candidates,” said Zainuddin, of an alliance of vocal cord cancer victims.
Rights group Imparsial accused candidates of neglecting human rights issues.
“There has been no political party that has approached the main rights issue: the human rights violations happened in the past have not been made a consideration for these parties,” Imparsial program director Al Araf said.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/legislative-candidates-face-criticis...
