Money Politics

Money Politics Source: Indonesian Expat Magazine, Edition May 2014, Page 21 Indonesia’s Legislative Election on the 9 April 2014 showed countless fraudulence reports of legislative candidates who had tried to buy their way into power by giving a number of bribes to some officers of the Local Election Commission in return for which they ensured the candidate’s victory. Meanwhile, some candidates were also vote buying, which is a risky business especially for those who failed to be elected and can’t repay their debts. Consequently, they end up in psychiatric treatment or are arrested. In my opinion, it is common in the direct election system, especially in the relatively younger democratic states like Indonesia, that every legislative candidate will do everything to be elected. They tend to choose manipulative ways, such as vote buying and giving bribes to officials, rather than following? engaging in? the right conduct, such as promoting their vision and program to their voters. They take a big risk by providing such big money, approximately 3 to 6 billion rupiahs per candidate, by selling their assets or borrowing money from banks. Consequently, this condition makes political costs become huge. They hope they can reclaim their investment if they receive a victory. The problems come out when they fail to be elected and some candidates become furious and insane. I argue that there are three reasons why this happens: firstly, less confident candidates, secondly, the low mentality of the voters, and last, the deceitful behaviour of the officials. LFN