Arya News - The proposal resurfaced recently after Corruption Eradication Commission deputy chair Fitroh Rohcayanto linked rampant corruption to politicians’ reliance on outside funding to finance costly election campaigns, which often compels them to repay donors through rigged programs once they are in office.
JAKARTA – Aproposal to increase state funding for political parties to curb corruption in the country’s executive and legislative branches is gaining support among politicians, but experts warn that it will only work if the parties also commit to greater transparency and clean governance.
The proposal resurfaced recently after Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chair Fitroh Rohcayanto linked rampant corruption to politicians’ reliance on outside funding to finance costly election campaigns, which often compels them to repay donors through rigged programs once they are in office.
He said the commission has repeatedly recommended increasing state funding for political parties, but the government has yet to fully act because of budget concerns.
Most political parties have since backed the KPK’s proposal, with some politicians, such as Ahmad Muzani, the secretary-general of President Prabowo Subianto ’s Gerindra party, going even further by suggesting a tenfold increase in funding.
Under the current arrangement, as laid out in a 2018 government regulation, parties in the national legislature annually receive Rp 1,000 (US 6 cent) for each vote they won in the previous legislative election.
This means that the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the biggest party in the House of Representatives, receives Rp 25 billion ($1.5 million) per year, while the two smallest parties, the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), receive around Rp 10 billion annually.
House Speaker Puan Maharani of the PDI-P, however, urged caution, as she questioned whether the government has the fiscal capacity to finance such a significant increase.
“The main essence of the proposal to increase funding for parties is anticorruption. But we must look carefully at whether the state budget be enough and whether it can be done quickly,” she told reporters in a press conference on May 25.
Cleaner parties
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) activist Yassar Aulia said that simply increasing state funding for parties will not necessarily prevent corruption in politics and could instead increase the risk of it if parties are not transparent in how they manage their funds.
“Parties have consistently shown that they are not transparent and accountable. Take the 2024 legislative elections for instance: not all parties made their campaign fund reports publicly accessible, and even when these reports were made available, they had low-quality data,” Yassar said on Tuesday.
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Yassar also urged the KPK to play a more active role in monitoring parties’ finances and, when necessary, to open an investigation if there are signs of misappropriation.
Gurnadi Ridwan of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) also said that any increase in party funding must be accompanied by additional pressure for them to not only be more financially transparent, but to also improve how they run themselves internally.
The government, he suggested, should introduce new performance indicators that political parties must meet to access the state funding, such as the frequency of its lawmakers’ engagement with the public, or the effort and funds it puts into educating its own members.
“Increasing funding should not just be about reducing the risk of corruption, but also about improving the quality of the parties themselves, and in turn, our democracy as a whole,” Gurnadi said.
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Political analyst Arya Fernandes of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is unconvinced that increased state funding will be effective in curbing corruption in politics but said that the plan could instead help make political parties more independent and democratic.
He said that most parties remain heavily dependent on a small circle of patrons for operational funding, who are often their own leaders or senior elites, giving those individuals unchallenged influence over the party’s internal decision-making.
“Having more state funding will dilute parties’ reliance on the handful of elites that have been financing them. This way, the party can be more autonomous and there will be more competition among members [for spots in the regional and legislative elections],” he said.
Presidential Communications Office head Hasan Nasbi has previously said that the government was open to discussing a potential increase to party allocations and that any decision would carefully consider the conditions of the state budget, Antara reported.