Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – "Money politics" are having a negative affect on the behavior of voters and politicians, threatening democracy in Indonesia, say analysts and politicians.

Executive director of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) Saiful Mujani and secretary general of the Forum for Election Supervision (Formappi) Sebastian Salang say money politics have become a common tool used to win direct elections.

"Local elites, be they politicians or businesspeople, use their money to buy support from certain political parties or a coalition of certain political parties as their political vehicle to win local elections," Saiful said in a discussion Monday.

"Political parties also secretly make political deals with politicians and businessmen to help their candidates win the election," he added.

Eligible voters, especially the politically uniformed, are likely to give their votes to the candidates who pay them the most, Saiful said.

"This kind of pragmatism threatens democracy because regional chiefs and councillors turning to money politics to win local elections or legislative elections will probably abuse their power to gain back the money they paid during the elections. This has been proven by governors, regents, mayors and councillors who are facing corruption charges in court and those already serving their jail terms," said Sebastian.

Tjahjo Kumolo, a senior figure of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) warned against stereotyping regional heads who have won local elections over the past two years.

"Many regional heads have paid serious attention to the development of democracy in their regions and many councillors have been fighting for the political aspirations of their constituents although they have paid a huge amount of money to win their seat either in the local administration or the legislature," he told the discussion.

He added that national leaders and regional heads should still consider how legitimately they had won their election. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he said, should be on "high alert" when using his power and running his government because a large portion of the country's eligible voters did not exercise their voting rights in the 2004 elections, while other did not participate as a protest against technical faults in the poll.

PDI-P legislator Eva K Sundari said Indonesia needed to strengthen its civil society and political parties during its transition to true democracy.

"Political parties have to be independent and strong, both politically and financially, and they have to be intimate with the daily life of their members. A healthy relationship between parties and the people will gradually force the elite to pay attention to improving the people's social welfare, developing democracy and promoting good governance when they are in power," she said.