Punishment sought for lax political parties
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.