Law on money politics sought to ensure democracy

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra has underlined the importance of formulating a special law on money politics to help curb the rising trend of the crime.

Speaking at a one-day seminar here on Monday, Yusril said that none of the existing laws was sufficient to address money politics practices, which could be viewed as bribery.

The minister said that due to the absence of the law, money politics, which frequently involved backhanders for the election of certain officials to hold certain positions, had become increasingly difficult to solve.

He said that it was necessary to make a clear-cut definition because money politics could not be touched by the law at all if the money used did not come from state funds.

"If the money comes from one's own pocket, it's dealing with a moral issue rather than a legal one. On the other hand it's a violation of the law, if it involves state funds," he said in his address, read by the ministry's secretary-general Hasanuddin.

"This practice is difficult to prove before the law. The easiest way to curb it is to enhance moral awareness about it. But I think there should be a regulation or law that specifically covers money politics cases," he added.

In practice there are actually several laws whose articles cover money politics, such as Anti-corruption Law No. 3/1999, the Criminal Code, Anti-bribery Law No. 11/1980 and Election Law No. 2/1999.

National Ombudsman Commission chairman Antonius Sujata, however, also considered that the articles in the laws were not powerful enough to settle the crime, since they only focused on those giving money and not on those receiving it.

"Based on complaints and reports submitted to the commission, the receivers of the money are mostly those who play an active role and usually come from the big political parties," he told the seminar.

The idea of establishing a specific law on money politics has been raised apparently to prevent similar deals in the upcoming 2004 general elections, where political parties were believed to have started collecting funds for campaign and other activities.

There have been reports over the last three years about money politics in the election of certain regents, mayors or governors who involved the participation of members of big political parties in regional legislative councils.

Albert Hasibuan, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), also said at the seminar that rampant money politics hampered democracy and the people's political right to a fair election.

"There should be a correction of this situation," he said, adding that only good governance that optimized the check and balance system could curb such a practice.

Law sociologist of Surabaya-based Airlangga University, Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto, suggested that the government should pay attention to small political parties by giving them more funds to help ensure fair competition among them.

He pointed out that without such an incentive there would be no way for the small parties to compete with the large ones, which could "buy" votes in order to have many seats in the legislature. (bby)