Punishment sought for lax political parties
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to punish almost all of the 48 political parties that had contested the 1999 general elections for failing to disclose the mandatory annual report detailing lists of donors and results of financial auditing.
Cetro advocacy director Hadar N. Gumay told The Jakarta Post that the parties had violated Article 15 of the Law No. 2/1999 on Political Parties, which stipulates that each party must supply the Supreme Court with lists of donors and donations, and a financial audit report 15 days before and 30 days after a general election and every year after that.
"The Supreme Court must not stay silent. Political parties have no right to use taxpayers' money without accountability," Hadar said on the sidelines of a seminar at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) office in Central Jakarta.
According to Cetro's findings, almost all political parties reported the use of the fund granted by the government for the 1999 election campaign, but only a few of them had submitted the mandatory annual reports.
Each party received a Rp 150 million donation from the government for the 1999 election campaign.
The ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, headed by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, headed the list of law breakers.
Of the 48 political parties, only seven provided their annual report in 1999 and only one presented the report in 2000. No parties submitted reports in 2001.
The seven parties that complied with the law in 1999 were the Love the Nation Democratic Party (PDKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Indonesian People Party (PARI), the Justice Party (PK), the People's Democratic Party (PDR), the Peace Loving Party (PCD) and the Justice and Unity Party (PKP).
The only party that submitted annual reports to the Supreme Court in 2000 was PDKB.
According to the law, the annual reports can be audited anytime by public auditors appointed by the Supreme Court.
Article 18, paragraph 1 of the law says that the Supreme Court can impose penalties in the form of cutting government funding to a political party which violates the ruling on mandatory financial reporting.
The Supreme Court can also ban the political parties from contesting the next election if they are found guilty of breaking the maximum limit of personal and institutional donations.
A member of the General Election Commission (KPU), Mulyana W. Kusumah, separately suggested that the Supreme Court should be more active in dealing with the situation.
"The court plays the central role in the supervision of political parties," Mulyana told the Post.
Based on the Government Regulation No. 50/2001 on government donations for election, each political party receives Rp 1,000 per vote it won in the 1999 election. PDI Perjuangan earned the most with Rp 34 billion.
Sources confirmed that only 42 of the political parties contesting the election had accepted the government donation.