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Plague of Corruption Rises Anew in Indonesia | Plague of Corruption Rises Anew in Indonesia |
(17 days later) | |
JAKARTA — Fifteen years ago, Indonesia took its first step toward democracy with the ouster of an authoritarian president. By 2009, the country had one of the most open electoral systems in Asia, with direct balloting to elect government officials, from the president all the way down to district chiefs and mayors. | |
Candidates discovered that political parties and elections cost money, especially in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago nation of 240 million people. As the country’s democracy has expanded, so has the need to pay for flights to rallies, local party offices, advertising, pollsters and consultants — not to mention the box lunches and T-shirts that are expected by voters who turn up at campaign events. | |
But Indonesia’s campaign finance laws have not kept up with these changes, analysts say. As a result, political parties here are increasingly financing their operations with the same shady practices that symbolized the era of President Suharto, whose tenure lasted from 1967 to 1998. | |
“That’s not a secret anymore,” said T. Mulya Lubis, chairman of the executive board of Transparency International Indonesia, which monitors political corruption. “It’s public knowledge. This is the biggest kind of corruption now.” | |
The most recent political scandal involves the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party, the fourth-largest party in the House of Representatives and a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s governing coalition. The party, known as the P.K.S. for the initials of its Indonesian name, has been under fire since its chairman was arrested in January over allegations that he accepted bribes from a local company to ensure that it received a larger share of a government-issued quota to import beef. | |
In the past month, other Prosperous Justice Party leaders have been accused of orchestrating a payoff of more than $1 million intended for the party’s 2014 legislative election campaign. | |
Separately, a corruption suspect has asserted that the party planned to exploit its control of several government ministries to amass a campaign war chest of about $204 million. Party officials have denied those allegations as well as all other accusations of corruption. | |
The beef scandal has prompted calls for Mr. Yudhoyono’s government and the legislature to overhaul the campaign finance laws before national elections next year. Proposals include making rules for the public disclosure of political parties’ expenditures and sources of income, setting limits on campaign spending, appointing corruption monitors and prosecuting party officials for violations. | |
Titi Anggraeni, executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy, a nongovernmental organization, said the current law required parties to disclose donations, income and expenditures only in a single report endorsed by their own auditor, rather than to open their accounts to public scrutiny. As a result, Ms. Anggraeni said, it is easy to hide illegal contributions and spending. | |
“We have free and fair elections in Indonesia, but not free and fair competition,” she said. “Candidates use money as a shortcut to win elections.” | “We have free and fair elections in Indonesia, but not free and fair competition,” she said. “Candidates use money as a shortcut to win elections.” |
Under the current law, the only legal sources of revenue for political parties are member dues, capped donations from individuals and companies, and state subsidies for winning seats in the national and provincial legislatures. | |
But Ms. Anggraeni said her organization’s research found that the legal sources of income covered less than 15 percent of the operating expenses for political parties, which must maintain offices in all 34 of Indonesia’s provinces and in two-thirds of the 491 incorporated provincial districts to compete in elections. | |
“It’s not in the Indonesian culture for persons or companies to make political contributions, because people don’t trust political parties,” she said. “This creates a situation where political parties seek illegal funds.” | “It’s not in the Indonesian culture for persons or companies to make political contributions, because people don’t trust political parties,” she said. “This creates a situation where political parties seek illegal funds.” |
Effendi Gazali, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia, said that most of the illegal money flowing into political party coffers was generated by members of the Budget Commission of the House of Representatives, who have expansive powers to oversee even the smallest expenditures. | |
“They have very close ties with ministries and other state institutions, so they ‘cook’ the budgets of ministries and state institutions handled by ministers from coalition parties, and they also manage to get a kickback,” Mr. Gazali said. | |
Last month, a former senior National Police officer testified in court that the Budget Commission had received four boxes of cash in 2010 from a police general arrested last December in connection with a $20 million procurement scandal, according to local news reports. And in the past five years, dozens of current and former members of the national legislature have been convicted of corruption. In March, investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission raided the offices of two national lawmakers from Golkar, Indonesia’s largest political party, in connection with accusations of corruption involving the construction of sports facilities for Indonesia’s 2012 National Games. | |
Analysts have been predicting a spike in illegal political financing before hotly contested legislative and presidential elections set for next year. | Analysts have been predicting a spike in illegal political financing before hotly contested legislative and presidential elections set for next year. |
“The problem is, if there isn’t a good political party financing system, you’ll have political parties focusing on getting money rather than focusing on representing constituents or pursuing ideas that they can present as alternatives,” said W. Paul Rowland, a Jakarta-based associate with the Center for Democratic Institutions at Australian National University. | “The problem is, if there isn’t a good political party financing system, you’ll have political parties focusing on getting money rather than focusing on representing constituents or pursuing ideas that they can present as alternatives,” said W. Paul Rowland, a Jakarta-based associate with the Center for Democratic Institutions at Australian National University. |
“The legal risk of being a political party treasurer is huge,” Mr. Rowland said. “If you look at the number of investigations against political party treasurers by the anti-corruption commission, you can certainly draw some conclusions. There’s certainly a connection between political parties, the positions they hold in ministries and these corruption cases.” | “The legal risk of being a political party treasurer is huge,” Mr. Rowland said. “If you look at the number of investigations against political party treasurers by the anti-corruption commission, you can certainly draw some conclusions. There’s certainly a connection between political parties, the positions they hold in ministries and these corruption cases.” |
Another problem is that many of Indonesia’s 10 largest political parties have wealthy patrons, or a group of patrons, who pay for some party expenses in exchange for a top position or influence over legislation and government policies, analysts say. | |
Marcus Mietzner, a senior lecturer at Australian National University and the author of a forthcoming book on party and campaign financing in Indonesia, said that a sharp increase in public financing for political parties needed to be a major part of any effort to overhaul laws governing money in politics. | |
In 2005, annual state financing for political parties was reduced from 1,000 rupiah, about 10 cents, per vote won in national, provincial and district legislatures in the previous election to 21 million rupiah, about $2,135, for each seat won — which decreased total funds by about 90 percent, Dr. Mietzner said. In 2009, the annual amount was further reduced to 108 rupiah, about a penny, for each vote won. | |
“You can’t really have credible reform without a significant increase in state subsidies,” Dr. Mietzner said. “Most new and consolidated democracies offer state subsidies for parties, which usually cover 25 to 30 percent of total party expenditure. In Indonesia, it’s now probably 0.01 percent. The amount of state subsidies to parties is absolutely minimal.” | |
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