Another reason why Islamic political parties support the human rights provisions
is for their own protection. All Islamic political parties in Indonesia refer to the
situation in the Soeharto era particularly, when many Muslim activists were sent to
jail without human rights protection. Therefore it is in the interests of Islamic
political parties to ensure that such abuse does not occur in the post-Soeharto era.
This explains why they have given full support to the inclusion of human rights
provisions in the amendment to the 1945 constitution. Their position is different
from that of other Muslim groups who openly reject the concept of human rights as
based on alien Western notions or as a conspiracy against Islam, and from that of
those who take pains to establish a specifically Islamic human rights scheme within
an ideological framework devoid of legal reform in Islam. Full acceptance of
human rights provisions has shown that Indonesia has provided a model for other
Islamic countries to acknowledge the compatibility of human rights and Islamic
law. Mashood A. Baderin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London,
observes, ‘the scope of international human rights can be positively enhanced in
the Muslim world through moderate, dynamic, and constructive interpretations
of the Shari’a rather than through hardline and static interpretations of it’.
28
Elections and a multiparty system
An electoral system is a technique for casting votes, counting votes and allocating
legislative seats.^29 It is the method by which votes cast in an election are translated
into the seats won in parliament, by parties and candidates. Another important
function of an electoral system is to act as the conduit through which citizens can
hold their elected representatives accountable. In addition, an electoral system
helps to structure the boundaries of acceptable political discourse, by giving
incentives to party leaders to couch their appeals to the electorate in distinct ways.^30
Free and fair general elections are important in democracy. A democratic
election requires that the legal framework regulating national elections, and the
implementation of the election itself, should be in conformity with the existing
rules and regulations, from beginning to end, including the electoral process –
political party registration, campaigning, vote casting and counting. If there are no
free elections, there will be no democracy.^31 To choose one electoral system means
to determine the best system for casting and counting votes, with regard to the
(^28) Mashood A. Baderin,International Human Rights and Islamic Law(Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003 ), p. 219.
(^29) Andre Blaiss and Louis Massicotte, ‘Electoral systems’, in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G.
Niemi, Pippa Norris et al.,Comparing Democracies: Elections and Voting in Global
Perspective(Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1996 ), p. 49.
(^30) Ibid.
(^31) Austin Ranney,Governing: An Introduction to Political Science(Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice Hall, 1990 ), p. 174.