CIDISS. Government through its various elements, has a commitment to eliminate the possibility of money politics. The commitment is the impact of the many problems that were present during the election of the regional head until the election of the regional head due to the money politics.
One of the major problems behind the direct election scheme held since 2005 is a centralized election candidacy system at party headquarters in Jakarta. All candidates carried by a political party in the region, both provincial and district and city, must obtain a letter of recommendation party central leadership and signed by the chairman general and secretary general of the party. KPUs at all levels will reject the coupons that a party may carry if it has not been accompanied by a letter of recommendation.
The impact of the process of determining such a candidate is the emergence of regional and party branch dependence on the central board. Furthermore, high regional administrators’ dependence on central boarders gives rise to buying and selling opportunities of support, blessing, and of course recommendation letters or popularly referred to as “recomend”. Finally, this rally is hunted by local officials and figures who are interested to advance as candidates in the election.
They, the regional leaders and leaders who want to advance it, allegedly flooded Jakarta in December 2017 to hunt down the recap of a political party DPP. Already, allegedly, tens and maybe even hundreds of cash bags changed hands from local people to “unscrupulous” administrators or party leaders in Jakarta.
This phenomenon gave birth to the term “political dowry”, which is a kind of political cost for the paslon if you want to get a recommendation from the party to compete in the election. Therefore, the open statement of La Nyalla Mattalitti claiming to be “extorted” by tens of billions of rupiah by a political party in the framework of his wish to be a candidate in East Java Governor Election is just the tip of the iceberg from the deep, severe, and damaged phenomenon of dowry and money politics behind the frenetic celebrations of election.
A party official once recalled that the price of this recommendation may vary, depending on the economic potential of a region and the candidate’s eligibility. Recommendations for strategic or potential areas or regions are economically more expensive than “dry” areas.
Similarly, the price of recombs for noncader and less elektorally eligible figures is more expensive than those who are cadres and considered to have high elektabilitas potential. If a candidate is a popular public figure, a party cadre, and has high electoral potential, often the party does not ask for a dowry, but merely “merely” political costs for promotion, socialization and campaigning.
The most serious impact of the increasingly expensive political dowry is the creation of corrupt and transactional election results. The political costs of billions of rupiahs issued by the candidates, in part by way of debtors to investors, are almost impossible to return by relying on salaries as regional heads. The only way is to sacrifice the public interest, namely to allow development projects funded by APBD to be the bancakan land of entrepreneurs who finance them in the pilkada. Finally, the people are nothing more than electoral numbers that can only knit hope and achieve a dream from one election to the next.
By: Mirwan Achmad *)
