There Are More Important Issues Than Legalizing Money Politics, The Ridiculous Idea Of Council Members That Are Said To Be Dear

JAKARTA The proposal of the PDI-P politician (PDIP) for the practice of money politics to be legalized in the next election and the 2024 Pilkada has made a scene. Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) calls this a ridiculous idea, while political observers say legalizing the policy policy does not solve problems in Indonesia.

In a working meeting of Commission II with the KPU, Bawaslu, and the Minister of Home Affairs at the DPR Building, Senayan, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (15/5/2024) Hugua said money politics should be allowed to maintain its limits in the General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU). Present at the meeting were Chairman of the KPU Hasyim Asy'ri, Chairman of Bawaslu Rahmat Bagja, and Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian.

"Regarding the quality of the regional elections, even though this is PKPU, we will talk about registration first and so on, but this is a series that must be considered from now on by the KPU, Bawaslu, DKPP," said Hugua.

"That the quality of this election was the first like this. Don't we think our policy policy will legalize it in PKPU with certain boundaries?" he continued.

If in the future money politics is legalized, said Hugua, politicians will not 'cat and mouse' with election supervisors. For this reason, Hugua assesses that the policy policy must be legalized with certain limits, for example a maximum of IDR 5,000 or IDR 5 million.

The practicemoney of politics carried out by election participants or candidates for legislative / DPD members is always a problem in every election event. Citing the website of Muhammadiyah University Jakarta,money politics is part of the election corruption scandal and an important issue among other election violations.

Based on the general definition,money politics is only associated with the practice of buying votes or voting buying. Whereas the mobility of politics in the sense of the influence of money in elections is not just the practice of buying votes, but the overall practice in every stage of the election which can be influenced by money so that it can benefit from one political party or candidate and / or not benefiting from political parties or other candidates.

According to University of Indonesia political observer Cecep Hidayat, the practice of money politics is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia, it has even existed since after the reform era. The longer, the termmoney politics can often be heard in the midst of the uproar of general elections.

The emergence of dawn attacks or sudden distribution of basic necessities has become commonplace in the political year. Although called Hugua, the perpetrator of the polymer politics, such as playing 'cat and mouse', the incessant practice ofmoney politics led to the slogan 'take the money but don't choose the person' in political contestation. This boy was even said by the elected president Prabowo Subianto in 2014, which he repeated a few months ago, before voting day on February 14, 2024.

"Therefore, I convey and I recommend that the Indonesian people be divided into basic necessities and divided into money, accept it because it is the people's right. But when making choices in front of the election venue, use your conscience, choose according to your own heart and mind," said Prabowo at that time.

Cecep explained that the occurrence of money politics so far was caused by several things, one of which was that there was no clear political finance law.

"In Indonesia, there is no law governing party finances. So far, party financial sources have only been regulated. This must be a record rather than legalizing money politics," Cecep said when contacted by VOI.

So far, the finances of political parties are regulated in Article 34 of Law Number 2 of 2011 which states that political party finances come from three things, namely membership fees, legal donations according to law, and financial assistance from the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) or the Regional Deposit and Expenditure Budget (APBD).

Back to money politics, according to Aspinall & Sukmajati (2015), the types of money politics in elections that occur in Indonesia include the purchase of votes (vote buying), the provision of personal goods, services and activities, and the political barrel projects or pork gengs.

Politik Gentong Babi Jokowi untuk Prabowo-Gibran Diungkap Dirty Vote, Jubir Amin: Penguasa Culas dan Tidak Beretika https://t.co/vZ06In7CSl #TempoBisnis

— tempo.co (@tempodotco) February 12, 2024

Politik Gentong Babi Jokowi untuk Prabowo-Gibran Diungkap Dirty Vote, Jubir Amin: Penguasa Culas dan Tidak Beretika https://t.co/vZ06In7CSl #TempoBisnis

Although the practice of money politics is prohibited in election contestation, as stated in Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections, Cecep said it was difficult to prove the existence of this practice.

Cecep emphasized that there are other issues that are actually more important than legalizing the policy policy as suggested by Hugua, namely related to voters or voters themselves. He hopes that political education in Indonesia is more intensified in order to create rational voters, so there is no need for money politics.

"The problem is not the business politics, but education for voters, making smart voters, thus forming a rational voters," he said.

Sementara itu, peneliti ICW Seira Tamara mengatakan pernyataan Hugua yang mengusulkan melegalkanmoney politicspatut tersangkat, apakah yang bersangkutan sebelumnya memenangkan kontestasi dengan mengandalkan kekuatanmoney politics.

"The statement that if it is not legalized, many will do it (money politics) in terms of cats and cats, this logic of thinking is very dangerous, because it has the potential to perpetuate corrupt practices more," said Seira, quoting Tempo.

He regretted that this statement came out of a representative of the people. According to Siera, this shows that the person concerned has no integrity and doubts his side in the commitment to eradicating corruption.

Siera assessed that this statement further shows the quality of the people's representatives who view electoral contestation as a capital battle, a fight for money, not a fight for ideas. As a member of the DPR, he hopes that the proposal developed should be how to formulate regulations that have a role in minimizing and even eradicating money politics.

"The way to attract the public to be willing to give a good policy idea, not even think that everything is enough to buy people's votes using money," he said.