Parties retain govt funds

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