At a reasonable level, money is required to drive democracy. However, money will damage and corrode the system when it becomes the only way to win in a political competition. A costly political system will also trigger rampant corruption. Democracy in Indonesia appear to be in danger of collapse as a consequence of the dominance of money in politics.

 

The upcoming simultaneous regional election (Pilkada) which is due to take place at the end of 2015 is still hampered by several factors, particularly the candidates' lack of preparation to run a campaign. The root of this problem would come down to a hard fact: the political dowry required from the candidates who aspire to lead a region. A political dowry creates an abnormal situation in Pilkada that make a single pair of candidates possible, while also crippling other qualified candidates to participate in the contest.

(http://news.metrotvnews.com/read/2015/08/01/417404/mahar-politik-membuat-sepi-daftar-pilkada).

 

Political dowry in Pilkada is not an empty rumor. Hard evidence are already widespread. Sebastian Salang, political analyst and activist from FORMAPPI was forced to resign his candidacy as regent of Manggarai in Nusa Tenggara Timur after he was confronted with a dowry demanded by local political parties as the term of their support. A similar situation took place in Toba Samosir where a candidate filed a local police report after he was asked for money by a political party as requirement for supporting his campaign as regent.

(http://www.beritasatu.com/nasional/297063-diungkap-mahar-politik-di-partai-gerindra-toba-samosir.html).

 

The Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) had also detect indications of electoral offenses and had requested the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) to track bank transactions of candidates for mayor / regent / governor competing in the simultaneous election throughout the country.

(http://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/politik/2015/08/04/336993/bawaslu-temukan-praktik-mahar-politik).

 

Being the primary requirement to gain support from political parties that have seats in the parliament or city council, political dowry is in fact a prohibited illegal practice that can be processed legally. The Law No. 8/2015 about Election of Governors, Regents and Mayors had clearly regulate a criminal sanction against any individual or political party participating in trading of political support.

 

Article 47 of Law No. 8/2015 stated:

(1) A political party or a combination of political parties are prohibited from receiving compensation in any form in the process of nominating Governor and Deputy Governor, Regent and Deputy Regent, or Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

(2) A political party or a combination of political parties that have been proven to have received compensation as referred to in paragraph (1) will be imposed with a fine of 10 (ten) times the value of the compensation received.

 

Because there is a normative prohibition in place against practices of political dowry, therefore the key to clean up political parties and electoral system from corruption lies on the capability of Bawaslu to impose the rules, to monitor and pursue every indication of bribery between candidates and party elites. A strong cooperation between Bawaslu, PPATK, and law enforcement agencies like the Police, Attorney General, Tax Directorate and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to tackle practices of political dowry will help to lessen political transactions leading up to Pilkada.***