Prabowo's Electability Unaffected by Human Rights Issue

Jakarta (Antara) - Political observer from Pelita Harapan University (UPH) Emrus Sihombing has opined that human rights issue will not affect the electability of Prabowo Subianto, the presidential hopeful from Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) party. "Human rights issue is cannot reduce Prabowo's electability because it is only the choice of the elite community," Emrus explained here on Thursday. According to him, the issue will probably only influence 20 percent of voters from elite community, while 80 percent of the rest in rural areas will be unaffected. Emrus pointed out that the human rights issue has been circulated only at the level of educated people and did not reach all community members. Further, he added that there are still a lot of politically illiterate people in rural areas and therefore, they will not be affected by the human rights issue. Therefore, he clarified that Gerindra should embrace the lower class of society in the party's programs. Earlier, the New York Times pointed out that Prabowo's presidential candidacy has raised deep concerns among rights activists in Indonesia and abroad. According to the New York Times, the rights activists noted that Indonesia's human rights commission recommended that Prabowo be prosecuted in the alleged abduction of pro-democracy activists in the late 1990s, during the final months of the military-backed government of President Suharto. (*)