Indonesia regional lawmakers pawn appointment letters to cover campaign costs; experts warn of potential corruption

JAKARTA: Several newly inaugurated Indonesian lawmakers have resorted to pawning their appointment letters (SKs) in exchange for bank loans, to relieve some of the high costs of political campaigning for the regional elections.
Observers say this is an old phenomenon that occurs with each new batch of regional legislative council (DPRD) members, while expressing concern that this condition will lead to political corruption and a deteriorating democracy.
“The risk is that there could be abuse of authority with the aim of covering the need to pay instalments and other political costs,” Ms Titi Anggraini, an election expert from the University of Indonesia (UI), told CNA.
DPRD members of Pasuruan regency, East Java province, were among those who pawned their SKs.
A report by online news portal Detik on Wednesday (Sep 4) cited the interim chairman of the Pasuruan DPRD, Abdul Karim, saying that four people had pawned their SK as collateral for a bank loan, and the number would likely increase.
The loans amounting to 500 million rupiah (US$32,400) or more were obtained from Bank Jatim.
In West Java province’s Subang regency, several DPRD members have applied to Bank BJB for loans of between 500 million and 1 billion rupiah with a tenor of five years or as long as they serve, reported local media outlet Viva. 
The monthly salaries of the Subang DPRD members will be cut by 50 per cent to pay off the debt instalments. 
Council members are paid around 50 million rupiah per month as stipulated by the law.
CNN Indonesia reported that after being officially inaugurated last Tuesday, 10 DPRD members of Serang city in Banten province have pawned their SKs.
Secretary of the Serang DPRD Ahmad Nuri said that a number of banks have offered loans of up to 1 billion rupiah.
In Sragen regency, Central Java, 22 of the 50 newly inaugurated DPRD members last week have pawned their SKs for loans, BPR Bank Djoko Tingkir president director Titon Darmasto told Detik on Wednesday. The loan amounts range from 200 million to 500 million rupiah.
Observers say the phenomenon of pawning SKs is a common occurrence often carried out by elected DPRD members in many regions.
“It’s just that in the past they were still shy, talking to a few people, now it is widely publicised through television or social media, so it is in the public spotlight,” Mr Ujang Komarudin, a political observer from Al-Azhar University Indonesia, told CNA.
“Thank God if you win. What if you lose? That’s the hassle. It’s no wonder that many losing legislative candidates are stressed because they can’t pay their debts,” Mr Ujang added.
The high costs of campaigning were confirmed by Mr Abdul Karim from the Pasuruan DPRD, who told Detik that the loan was “reasonable because yesterday (during the campaign) they had spent a lot of money”.
Campaign expenses of DPRD candidates are said to range from hundreds of millions to billions of rupiah.
These figures were leaked by Mr Muhammad Romahurmuziy, a United Development Party politician, in a podcast titled Total Politik last April, two months after the legislative and presidential elections were held.
The politician who is widely known as Mr Romy, said that members of the national House of Representatives had to spend an average of 15 billion rupiah to campaign in an electoral district.
At the provincial DPRD level, said Mr Romy, legislative candidates spent up to 3 billion rupiah, while for the district DPRD level the figure was 1 billion rupiah.
Mr Ambang Priyonggo, a political observer from Multimedia Nusantara University, said that political costs are expensive because legislative candidates still use traditional campaigning methods.
“They deal directly with residents so they spend a lot on operational costs, for example providing pamphlets or t-shirts, which really add up when multiplied,” Mr Ambang told CNA.
To make matters worse, there are also practices of money politics or buying and selling votes during the campaign which inflate political costs further.
“They also have to give something, either in the form of goods or money. So what they sell is not an idea. This kind of political model has very high costs for candidates,” added Mr Ambang.
Prior to being declared as a party representative running in the election, legislative candidates may also have to pay an extraordinary amount of political dowry in order to be nominated by the party.
Mr Amir Arief, director of socialisation and anti-corruption campaign at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said that the bigger the political dowry, the greater the candidate’s chances of being nominated by the party.
“The contestants spend between 5 billion and 15 billion rupiah per person to finance political dowries,” Mr Amir said in an article on the KPK’s Anti-Corruption Learning Center website.
The government has issued various prohibitions to prevent political dowries with strict sanctions. However, proving political dowries is difficult because they are carried out in a limited and secretive manner, wrote the centre.
In addition to paying for political costs, Ms Titi said that council members may take out loans to finance their lifestyles.
“Lifestyle also influences this phenomenon. Since political officials or legislators are usually equipped with luxurious facilities, council members also need to make adjustments,” said Ms Titi.
“Moreover, society identifies members of parliament as officials who have a lot of money,” she added.
Interim chairman of the Serang DPRD, Muji Rohman, said that there was no violation in pawning SKs to obtain bank loans, and it was within everyone’s right to do so.
“It is a necessity and does not violate the laws and regulations,” said Mr Muji to CNN Indonesia.
Even so, Ms Titi from UI said that if left unchecked, this behaviour could trigger corrupt political practices and that if the SK is pawned, it could encourage politicians to continue looking for additional money. 
Thus, she urged the state to seriously consider solutions to reduce the excessively high political costs in Indonesian elections.
If the winners of future elections are still determined by the amount of money they spend during the campaign – or political dowry – then observers say the quality of democracy in Indonesia will continue to decline.
“If it continues like this, improvement in the quality of democracy in Indonesia will not be realised,” said Mr Ambang.
“They (members of the council) are not chosen based on track record, merit, or ideas, but from what they give to voters,” he added.