Halimah, 42, arrived early at the polling station (TPS) with her 6-year-old daughter, Natasha Januari Saputri, near their shelter in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), on Wednesday, in the hope her vote would end her plight as a displaced Ahmadi.
“We hope our representatives in the legislature can fight for our future. We’ve spent eight years in this shelter. We want a better place to live, or to return home,” Halimah told The Jakarta Post.
There are 133 displaced Ahmadis sheltered at Wisma Transito in Mataram after they were forced from their village in Lingsar district, West Lombok, in February 2006.
Seventy one of them are eligible voters and they did not waste their right to vote.
Most of the Ahmadis had high hopes for the legislative candidates they voted for, but Halimah said she was unfamiliar with the legislative candidates for whom she had voted.
Of those listed on four separate ballot papers, Halimah said she only knew one candidate who was running for a seat in the Mataram City Council because that candidate had once visited the shelter.
Another Ahmadi, Azizuddin, 45, said it was hoped that elected legislative candidates would be more concerned about the fate of the displaced Ahmadis.
“We hope elected representatives will embrace all people without differentiating against them based on ethnicity, religion or race,” said Azizuddin.
“In the presidential election, we will vote for presidential and vice presidential candidates who really care about the rights of their people, including us. We are Indonesian citizens, but we feel we are not free,” he went on.
An election observation team from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) monitored the voting.
In Sidoarjo, East Java, the Sampang Shiites also cast their votes near their displacement camp.
A number of police and military personnel were deployed to the location for security reasons.
“Eveything is good. There’s no problem,” Sidoarjo Police chief Adj. Comr. Marjuki said as quoted by tempo.co.
Sixty-seven Shia families were forced to leave their village in Sampang after a conflict with the majority Sunnis peaked on Aug. 27, 2012.
Dozens of homes belonging to Shia followers, whose spiritual leader was Tajul Muluk, were torched by a mob that claimed to represent the majority group. Two people were killed in the rioting, while Tajul was imprisoned for blasphemy.
The Shiites initially sheltered at a sports stadium in Sampang but were eventually moved to the Puspa Agro apartments in Sidoarjo, where they remain.
In Semarang, adherents of non-denominational faiths said they voted because they wanted the government to drop a regulation requiring all citizens to state their religion on their identification cards. The government only recognizes six official religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.
Non-denominational faiths are not recognized and often fall victim to various kinds of discrimination because of this policy.
Budi Santoso, who believes in the traditional belief of Sedulur Sikep, said he hoped members of his community would be allowed to declare their traditional beliefs in the religion column on their IDs.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration has been criticized for its failure to protect minority groups, with many even accusing it of being complicit in persecuting minorities.
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