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Candidates desperately seek funding to win legislative seats
The arrest of House of Representatives lawmaker Abdul Hadi Djamal for accepting a “bribe” to finance his election campaign has highlighted the lack of supervision of fund-raising activities
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The arrest of House of Representatives lawmaker Abdul Hadi Djamal for accepting a “bribe” to finance his election campaign has highlighted the lack of supervision of fund-raising activities.
Teten Masduki from Transparency International Indonesia said corruption in campaign activities begins as early as the selection process for legislative candidates, who have to pay for their nomination.
“Financial pressure is felt more by the candidates now, because apart from financing their own campaigns they have to buy party approval for their candidacy,” he said.
The Constitutional Court ruling which introduced the open election system, where the candidate with the most votes wins the seat, has exacerbated the situation as the onus has been shifted onto individual candidates to garner support for their election campaigns.
Teten said many candidates have gone down every avenue trying to secure campaign funds, including misusing public money and accepting bribes.
Abdul was arrested last week after accepting US$90,000 and Rp 54 million from businessman Hontjo Kurniawan to ensure his company PT Kurnia Jaya Wirabhakti won the contract for the development of piers and airports in eastern Indonesia.
The money was handed over through non-active Transportation Ministry staff Darmawati Dareho.
Hontjo’s lawyer Erman Umar said his client gave the money to Abdul as a campaign donation and in return Abdul agreed to stand up for Hontjo’s interest wherever he could.
The National Mandate Party immediately dismissed Abdul following the arrest.
Abdul is the eighth politician arrested for alleged bribery in the past year.
Zainal Arifin Mochtar from Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Anticorruption Studies (Pukat) said the Constitutional Court ruling contributed to an increase in corruption.
“But don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the ruling. It is the supervision of campaign fund-raising that needs improvement,” he said.
The 2008 law on legislative elections says campaign funds can only be traced back as far as the political parties, but individual candidates do not need to report donations.
“Previously, candidates had to contribute to the party campaign fund but the current system allows them to keep the money for themselves,” he said.
He said this ruling increased the likelihood of funding being obtained by any means possible.
He also criticized the “unlimited” authority of the lawmakers, saying the checks and balance mechanism needed strengthening.
Zainal urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to indiscriminately crack down on corruption in the legislative power.
“We can see that the commission has managed to expose corruption, not eradicate it,” he said.
He said there were many corruption cases that remained beyond the reach of the KPK.
The Bank Indonesia graft case, for example, has only managed to nab 2 lawmakers, despite 50 House commission members allegedly received a part of Rp 31.5 billion.
