Scholars warn of potential for money politics in poll
Scholars warn of potential for money politics in poll
JAKARTA (JP): Participants in a conference on election
monitoring urged Wednesday that no party should be allowed to
abuse government facilities in campaigning and in other parts of
the general elections slated for May 1999.
"Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tanjung should step down from
his job," political scholar Arbi Sanit said, because of the
potential abuse of power in his capacity as chairman of the
ruling party Golkar.
Secretary general of the Independent Election Monitoring
Committee (KIPP), Mulyana W. Kusumah told The Jakarta Post the
abuse of both government facilities and positions by contesting
parties was part of the wide range of money politics that
election monitors should be watching out for.
"This would include (monitoring) ministers campaigning for a
party," he said, given the likely possibility that ministers
would use their respective office resources in campaigns.
They were responding separately to the concerns of money
politics raised, among other issues, by speakers Nurcholish
Madjid, also a political scholar, and lawyer T. Mulya Lubis.
Nurcholish had spoken of the "soft ethics" of Indonesians in
which the boundary between "contributions and corruption are not
clear."
"Money politics would be even more likely in a district
system," Nurcholish said. Another political researcher earlier
said that given the crisis, votes could easily be bought in
exchange for basic necessities in districts where the poor were
concentrated.
Mulya had questioned whether the government could act both as
organizer and "fair referee" in the elections.
The government's draft on election laws states that the
President is the highest authority responsible for the elections,
and that a committee supervising the elections would be set up.
A political scientist in the governments seven-member team
which drafted the law, Rizal Mallarangeng, had earlier written in
Ummat magazine that the combination of a proportional and
district system was designed to curb money politics.
He said that at least the amount of money involved could be
checked at each district level to prevent the uncontrollable,
allegedly large sums of money used to help Golkar win the 1997
elections.
But Arbi said the ability to control money politics "depends
on the authority given to the supervising committee".
Article 16 in the draft says a supervising committee of the
elections, Panwaslak, will be set up at the central, provincial
and regency level. The membership will be determined by the Chief
Justice for the national level, the head of the high court for
the provincial level and the head of the district court for
regencies.
Members do not include any party contesting the elections.
But Arbi said the supervising committee would have difficulty
being effective unless it was separate from the government.
The draft has accommodated demands for public participation in
an "independent institution" (Komisi Pemilihan Umum) in which
members of the public will sit. It is to be set up by the
President to conduct the elections. Mulyana said whether or not
KIPP might be represented, it would keep on monitoring the
elections.
In the government draft law, and also the proposed draft of
the private National Legal Reform Consortium, which includes
KIPP, bribery of voters and people recieving bribes proved to "do
something" against free and fair elections, is listed as a
violation which faces a three year imprisonment.
A participant from the Philippines, Chris Monsod of NAMFREL,
the National Movement for Free Elections, told the forum that his
country had developed a "very complex" law curbing money politics
in elections. "But no one has been convicted," as the law was
difficult to apply, Monsod said.
What is more practical, he said, is to ensure that the law
guarantees equal broadcast time for all parties.
Last year KIPP reported, among 25 types of violations, the
dominance of Golkar in media coverage. (anr)