Jakarta – Political parties need larger amounts of financial aid from the government to help discourage money politics and transactional politics, according to democracy watchdogs.
The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) suggested that the government should incrementally increase financial aid for political parties to dissuade them from the dishonest practices.
According to Lia Wulandari, a researcher with Perludem, most political parties in Indonesia allegedly practice money politics, apparently because they only receive meager amounts of money from the government. It is estimated that the financial assistance accounts for only 1.3 percent of their annual spending.
"Financial assistance should be increased to fulfill at least 5 percent of the political parties' total expenditures. If they can manage the funds well and provide financial reports, the amount can be increased gradually," she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
In addition, Lia recommended that increases should be stopped when financial assistance had reached 30 percent of a party's expenses.
Currently, only nine political parties enjoy financial assistance from the government. Based on existing regulations, only those parties with seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) are given the perk.
According to Home Ministerial Decree No. 212/2009, these political parties receive Rp 108 per year for every vote garnered in the 2009 general election.
With the 21.65 million votes it gained in 2009, the ruling Democratic Party gets Rp 2.34 billion (US$243,622) each year from the state coffers. According to Perludem's research, the party's annual spending is Rp 176.74 billion.
At the bottom of the list is the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), which receives Rp 423.97 million and spends Rp 32 billion a year.
The total amount of financial assistance paid to all nine parties is Rp 9.2 billion, less than 0.001 percent of the 2012 state budget of Rp 1,548 trillion.
The lack of financial support from the government, Lia said, forced politicians to raise money from other sources. "This opens a possibility for certain groups or individuals to exert their influence on politicians, which eventually affects the government's performance," she added.
The proposal to increase assistance funding has garnered support from politicians and activists alike.
Golkar politician Indra J. Piliang said that political parties desperately needed financial support, particularly to finance visits to their constituents.
"Politicians need to meet their constituents across this vast archipelago. The visits are expensive. We can't burden politicians with all the costs," he said during a discussion on Thursday in Jakarta.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Ade Irawan also acknowledged the importance of higher financial assistance. He emphasized, however, that the policy should go hand-in-hand with better supervision, to ensure that parties produced transparent and accountable audit reports.
A study conducted by the ICW found that only four of the nine political parties in the House submitted financial reports to the corruption watchdog. They were the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Hanura.
"Politicians from the non-compliant parties said that their parties didn't have financial reports. I assume maybe only God and leaders of the parties know the cash flows," Ade said. (yps)