Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – A new law on lobbying might ensure public accountability towards politicians, but on the flip side, such a law could also serve as justification for them practicing money politics, observers and experts said here Sunday.
An expert from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), Burhanuddin Muhtadi, told The Jakarta Post that political financing was inevitable, but people often confused that term with money politics.
"If we use the United States as a reference, a senator candidate can try to gain sympathy from a community by promising an increase in the financial budget for that community so that they should select him for the senate," he said.
"He will then deliver his promises after he secures his seat. This whole process is done on a written note, and is called political financing,"
What happens in Indonesia was very different, Burhanuddin said, as most of the political financing deals were done secretly between individuals and were taking place before the particular legislative candidate secured his or her seat.
"This, of course, makes it difficult for us to measure the accountability of the political process" he added.
Burhanuddin said that in such circumstances he could understand it was important for the country to have a law firmly regulating the requirements for transparent political lobbying processes.
"I fear that the law on political lobbying will then be exploited to justify the dirty money transactions during the political process. I agree to some extent that having that law is a major breakthrough, but the problem is that we simply do not have a House or a government that is capable enough to endorse the law in its original spirit," he said.
An expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Siti Zuhro, agreed with Burhanuddin, saying that it was more important to focus on the reform of House legislators' political morality and ethics rather than focusing on the political lobbying law.
"How can we ensure proper lobbying if we cannot ensure that the legislators can be trusted morally speaking? With morally-tainted legislators, it will be difficult for us to see that the proposed political lobbying law works in an effective manner," she said.
The House, faced heavy criticism on its image from various civil groups recently. For example, research by Transparency International on its 2009 Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) showed that the House was the most corrupt public institution.
Al Amien Nasution from the United Development Party (PPP) and Abdul Hadi from the National Mandate Party (PAN), were among many legislators jailed for taking bribes. Former legislators, such as Endin J. Soefihara from the PPP and Dudhie Makmun Murod from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), have also been named suspects in graft cases.
A legislator from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Andi Rakhmat, said that the country could use the lobbying law applied in the United States as a working reference to help guide best practice in Indonesia.
"For example, the United States regulation stipulates that lobbying must be done by independent lobbyist agencies, which are then annually audited to ensure transparency," he said.