Parties retain govt funds

JAKARTA : The government announced on Thursday that it had no plan to stop giving political parties financial assistance.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs will not scrap Government Regulation No. 51/2001. The funds will continue to be disbursed through the Ministry of Finance," Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno said.

Hari was commenting on a complaint voiced by an executive of the National Awakening Party (PKB) that the party had not received its usual funding this year.

The minister said that in the case of the PKB, his ministry had decided to suspend the assistance until the party had resolved its internal rift.

The PKB is currently split into two camps: one led by Matori Abdul Djalil and the other by Alwi Shihab.

Hari said his office would channel the funding to whichever political party met the legal qualifications and the administrative conditions stipulated in Government Regulation No 51/2001.

He said that based on the regulation, the government was spending Rp 105 billion (US$10.5 million) annually on funding for political parties.

Out of the 47 political parties in the country, only nine are currently eligible to receive the financial assistance, he said.

The minister identified the nine as the Indonesian Christian National Party (Krisna), the National Labor Party (PBN), the National Democrats Party (PND), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the MKGR Party, the Love for the Nation and Peace Party, the New Masyumi Party, the Islam Ummat Party and the Murba Party.--JP