SP/Carlos Paath – Increasing campaign costs could spur greater corruption after next year's elections as politicians try to recoup their money, an activist group says.
Sebastian Salang, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), said he feared there will be more political corruption cases after the 2014 election because campaign costs, which are largely unregulated, keep growing.
"I suspect that corruption post-2014 general elections will be increased because selected lawmakers would try to recoup the money they have spent on campaigns," Sebastian said in a discussion titled "Preventing Foreign and Illegitimate Funds in 2014 Elections" on Monday.
He said that if lawmakers earn Rp 60 million ($6,173) per month, for example, in salary and expense allowances, their five-year earnings will not compare to the cost of their campaigns. Since political costs are growing, he suspected that some lawmakers would try to bring in extra money in other ways, which could result in corruption.
"The current trend is that political parties look for wealthy people to support for the candidacy. There are even businessmen who admitted they paid the costs for legislative candidates with an agreement that once they were elected, they would secure the businessmen's interests," Sebastian said.
He added that this type of lobbying is not in the best interest of the country. "If power is being bought, then this nation is just waiting for the bankruptcy," Sebastian said.
The arrangement of funding for political parties is outlined in the 2008 and 2011 Laws on Political Parties, which regulate funding to members' contributions, lawful donations and support from the budgets at the state and regional levels.
He said it was unlikely that the General Elections Commission (KPU) and Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) could verify the sources of political funds.
Ray Rangkuti, from the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), said that there have not been any regulations on campaign funds. He said the need for large campaign budgets pushes political parties to seek money from illegitimate and foreign sources.
"This political design does not arrange at all about the political parties funds especially for campaigns. The methodology that is often found is using political power to rob state and regional budgets," he said.