Misused political funds

Misused political funds

Those in power change with the passage of time. But those in the political elite are still fond of abusing their positions. For example, contradictory statements on political parties' financial reports have been made, but the authorities have only responded perfunctorily.

The political elite say that their parties have submitted financial reports to the Supreme Court, while in fact they have not done so. High ranking officials of the Supreme Court have disclosed that the Supreme Court had no authority to force political parties to submit their financial reports.

The home minister explained, meanwhile, that the delivery of financial reports to the Supreme Court was based only on the political ethics and awareness of each political party.

What can we say given that senior Supreme Court officials and the home minister are apparently ignorant of the regulations governing their duties? One of these regulations imposes limits on donations and the need to clearly state the names of donors. An individual may not contribute more than Rp 15 million to a political party in one year, while donations from companies or institutions are limited to not more than Rp 150 million.

There is no legal vacuum, but the political parties failed to respect transparency and accountability. The political elite think that they can continue to secretly abuse funds. This situation is worsened by the passive attitude of the Supreme Court.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta