Electoral officers count votes at a polling station during the general election, in Jakarta on Feb 14, 2024. - Reuters
JAKARTA: Nearly one in two voters admitted to having been offered bribes during the elections in February, according to a recent study conducted by Indonesia’s official statistics board that also found an increasing tolerance towards corruption in the region’s biggest country.
These findings signal a worsening trend if stronger countermeasures are not swiftly implemented, experts warned, noting that poverty and a lack of education in the country were exacerbating the issue.
On July 15, Indonesia’s official statistics board Statistics Indonesia (BPS) said in a report on its website that in the lead-up to the Feb 14 elections, more than 46 per cent of voters were offered money, goods or facilities to choose certain candidates.
The study did not say how many accepted such bribes during the polls, which saw more than 200 million people registered to vote for a new president, legislators and other leaders.
The same report also said the country’s anti-graft index slipped to its lowest level since 2021, falling from 3.93 to 3.85, well below the government’s target of 4.1.
This index measures how permissive people are towards corrupt practices. A score of five indicates a strong rejection of graft, while zero represents a high tolerance for it. This figure was 3.92 in 2023, and 3.93 in 2022.
The BPS findings reflect how there is an understanding in Indonesia that corruption is widely accepted and even expected, Associate Professor Yohanes Sulaiman from Jenderal Achmad Yani University told The Straits Times.
“If (candidates) want their votes, they have to pay a certain amount of money. Is it problematic? Yes, but at the same time, people are used to it. That’s why corruption is seen as ingrained,” he said.
Under Indonesian law, purchasing votes is illegal and can earn offenders fines and jail time. But that has not stopped the practice from becoming commonplace, particularly in rural areas.
For instance, a legislative candidate in the Bondowoso regency in East Java caused a stir during the recent hustings when he said he intended to sell one of his kidneys to finance his campaign expenses.
Erfin Sudanto from the National Mandate Party said he needed US$50,000 (S$67,200) for his campaign, adding that a significant portion of that sum would be spent on what he called “tips” to gain the support of potential voters.
The expectation of having to buy the support of voters creates a deeper problem. When political candidates plan their budget, money has to be set aside not just to campaign, but also for this culture of vote buying, said Nicky Fahrizal, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think-tank.
“Candidates, whether willingly or not, often seek loans or financial support from any available source to cover these costs,” said Nicky, who is part of CSIS’ politics and social change department.
“This situation creates an entry point for corruption or bribery within the government, both at the central and regional levels, typically manifesting as bribes or fraudulent projects.”
Reasons for why people accept bribes for their votes are complex.
In an article published on ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s blog Fulcrum.sg, Mr Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a senior lecturer at the Islamic State University Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta, said lower-income and less-educated people are more likely to sell their votes.
“They are risk-averse and value a bag of goodies in hand today over the promise of redistributive government policies tomorrow,” said Mr Burhanuddin, who is also a visiting senior fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
He added that the lack of education increases the susceptibility to vote buying among Indonesians because they might not be aware of how money politics can harm political representation.
Made Supriatma, who is also a visiting fellow from the same institute, said that recently, bribery has manifested in a different way, where communities receive benefits collectively, and not individually.
He noted, for example, how during previous elections, a hamlet in Bantul in Central Java pooled its residents’ votes for a legislative candidate who provided a down payment to build a community hall. In a separate election, the same community pooled its votes for another candidate who was willing to pave roads in the village.
Not all Indonesians see vote buying or bribery as bad, said Made. “It may not change policy, but when voters choose to act collectively, these bribes become something useful for their community.”
When asked what can be done to stamp out corruption and bribery in the archipelago, all experts whom ST spoke to agreed that such practices will remain ingrained in Indonesia for the foreseeable future, on account of how deeply rooted they are.
Effective leadership is needed to address this issue, said Mr Edbert Gani Suryahudaya from CSIS’ department of politics and social change. “Many elites and politicians are involved in these practices, creating interdependencies. We need a stronger state with the capacity to act impartially,” he added.
Politicians who say they wish to address corruption can automatically gain support, said Mr Made, but he added that whether they follow through with such promises or not is another matter.
“Not many politicians are willing to take this path because it means cutting off the resources they need to get elected,” he said.
Prof Yohanes called for a reform of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), as well as the judiciary and police force.
Anti-graft activists and experts have decried how Indonesia’s amendment of its anti-corruption law in 2019 eroded the KPK’s powers, which was seen as a systematic effort to weaken the agency, after it was touted to have stepped on too many corrupt officials’ toes.
The changes included establishing a supervisory council that decides on the agency’s wiretapping, searches and arrests.
Improving the anti-corruption index will, however, be a tall order, said Prof Yohanes.
“People have given up caring, thinking that to turn the wheel, they have to pay for the grease. And they look at how corruption pervades the government from the top to the bottom. Nothing gets caught,” he added. - The Straits Times/ANN
