Senior Transparency International Indonesia (TII) researcher Franky Simanjuntak told The Jakarta Post that based on TII surveys conducted in many regions over the past three years, most politicians and political parties had been acting as rent seekers in the executive and legislative bodies. This has led to costly political campaigns and increasing party expenditures for legislative elections and local polls.

“Legislators and councilors at provincial and regency legislatures have no other choice but to abuse their power to seek funds to pay for their campaigns to win their legislative seats and to help finance their parties’ activities. Party elites in the Cabinet have apparently sold top echelon positions and gain from policy issuance within their own portfolio,” he said.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Febri Diansyah said this form of political corruption had been rife not only among regional leaders, but had infected other sectors in the regions, including education and taxes.

“The general allocation funds for the education and public works sectors have become sources of corruption for public officials in the executive and legislative bodies. A bigger part of general allocation funds disbursed through councilors has been manipulated to enrich legislators through distribution to their own electoral districts,” he said.

So far 17 governors and hundreds of regents, mayors and councilors have been held as suspects for manipulating general allocations funds from the state budget and non-budgetary funds and for issuing public policies to benefit their party cartels.

Gadjah Mada University political analyst Ari Dwipayana said political party cartels, bureaucracy and businesspeople are responsible for corruption of public funds.

The cartel phenomenon appears when political party elites function as rent seekers hunting for non-budgetary funds in ministerial portfolios, legislative budgets and state-owned enterprises to meet their financial requirements, he said.

“Political parties have forged mutual transaction ties and developed transactional politics with the business sector. Both sides need each other for mutual benefit and collaborate in local elections, legislative and presidential polls,” he said, adding that businesspeople and foreign companies have no objection to donating to parties as political investments favoring their own operational security.

Such transactional politics have become standard in the regions even though the amount of funds in play are generally believed to be far smaller than central government allocations.

“Almost all development projects have been taken by companies linked to local elites and regional heads. This has been possible because many regional heads have appointed members of their success team to strategic positions in their administration,” Ari said.

Senior Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) political analyst J. Kristiadi concurred, saying that the trend of political dynasties had also made the country more vulnerable to political corruption.

He cited Banten as an example. Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah who “appointed” relatives as regional heads in Serang, Cilegon mayoralty, Lebak and South Tangerang, and had helped win seats for other relatives in the House of Representatives and the Regional Representative Council.  

The Banten governor has a wide political network supported by the Banten Jawara grouping, the bureaucracy and local businesspeople. This ring of power is expected to be deployed in her efforts to seek re-election next year.

The political dynasty trend has appeared not only in former president Megawati Soekarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) but also in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party. The President’s son Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono was appointed party secretary-general and First Lady Kristiani Herawati has been rumored to be a presidential hopeful in 2014.

Kristiadi said complex politics had made it increasingly difficult to fight against political corruption, prompting law enforcers to be more selective in handling graft cases.

“This condition has made it difficult for President [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] to bring to court Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie for tax scandals involving the tycoon’s holding units. The difficult situation has something to do with Golkar’s threat of bringing the Bank Century scandal to [presidential] impeachment,” he said.

Kristiadi added that the establishment of a pro-government coalition joint secretariat could be seen as a chance for political corruption, suggesting that coalition members use the secretariat to negotiate positions and projects.

Political analysts and corruption watchdogs were of the same view on the importance of party income reform through a revision of the political party law.

They said the revised 2008 Political Party Law should be amended to have party members pay monthly or annual dues, or to allow them only to receive public funds following budgetary audits and under the precondition that results must be announced to the public.  

“The revised law, which would increase company or organizational donations to Rp 7.5 billion from the previous Rp 4 billion, would give wider opportunities for party elites to commit political corruption and this trend will lead to a capitalistic democracy,” Franky said.

Ari said party expenditures, especially during political campaigns, had to be controlled through an annual audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and the results had to be publicly announced for transparency purposes.

He also said party funds should no longer be controlled by party leaders and treasurers, but must be managed professionally. “Political campaigns during local and general elections have to be designed and limited through the media with equal opportunity for efficiency and security reasons. This method can minimize the misuse of money, restrict rent seekers and lead the nation to develop a healthy and prosperous democracy” he said.

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