VOA —
The anti-money politics movement has been carried out since 2019. The initiator, Wasingatu Zakiyah, is active in social movements with the village team. He was furious with the “bribery” activities of political actors to support one of the candidates.
“Every time there is an election, it always comes or appears in front of us is the discourse of money politics. So what comes first are tents, chairs and tables, but rarely do the candidates come with ideas. So, from there, residents don’t know much about the vision and mission, what exactly the candidates want. There are only photos and what number to vote for, that’s it.”
Three realms
Wasingatu Zakiyah, Initiator of the ‘Anti-Money Politics’ Village in Sardonoharjo, Sleman
According to Zaki, 47, a woman who graduated with a master’s degree in human rights and democracy from UGM, this anti-money politics effort is driven in three areas, namely the structure of law, where policy makers must have the same way of thinking as their citizens to reject money politics. Second, content of law, namely how to make regulations (village head regulations) and third, culture of law, where the community as recipients must agree to reject money politics in any form.
Considering that the campaign started on November 28, the cadres of each party are also being careful in campaigning and trying to comply with campaign rules.
When asked whether his party implemented money politics or the like, John S. Keban, Deputy Chair for Organizational Affairs who is also the Chair of Golkar’s Bapilu (Election Winning Body) said, “Don’t do it by Golkar cadres, because we want us to sit in the People’s Representative Council. gain the trust of the people and not use dirty methods to buy people’s votes. If we buy the people’s votes, our legitimacy will become very weak and fragile. “In the end, we feel that the people’s votes are being bought during democratic events like this.”
Wasingatu Zakiyah explained that the village being anti-money politics does not mean that residents reject the presidential and vice presidential candidates.
“In fact, this anti-money politics village asks legislative candidates or their teams to go directly to organic meetings held by the community such as RT, RW, Karang Taruna, Women, Youth, Farmers’ Groups, to introduce their vision and mission. “So the idea was introduced to the community,” he explained.
Bambang Praswanto, former Chairman of PDIP DIY
However, according to Bambang Praswanto, MSc., former Chair of the DIY PDIP Perjuangan who is now a Senior DPI Perjuangan Cadre, the election campaign this time was too short.
“Actually, there are many opportunities to convey something like that (the party’s vision and mission), but sometimes people want to save time, especially now that the campaign is shortened. Previously in 2019 it seemed like 5 or 6 months, now (the campaign period) is 80 days, so it has to be effective. Even before the official campaign period, there were already such activities.”
It’s not just limited to money
Returning to the issue of money politics, not everyone literally gives money to village residents in exchange for voting or voting for certain candidates. Various other methods and approaches used by the community can also be called money politics, for example offering to pave roads in villages, conveying PIP (Smart Indonesia Program), and so on.
Bambang Praswanto from PDIP Perjuangan DIY said, “The understanding of money politics is not understood. They think money politics is actually giving money, even though it can be done in various ways, such as providing basic food assistance, promising to give chairs, electronic equipment for village activities, etc. In my opinion, that’s money politics. Political education must be taught that whatever form it takes, it is money politics. So, they have to refuse.”
John Keban, Chairman of Bapilu Golkar
According to John Keban, there are exceptions. Serving drinks or snacks and transportation money is not money politics as stipulated in the campaign rules. That is what is called “political costs”.
“The Golkar party campaign refers to the principles of Indonesian Pancasila democratic values which are based on communalism, so that in our political work with the Golkar party, we avoid dirty methods, by justifying all means to win the election with money politics. In its political winning work pattern, the Golkar party does have cost politics. So there is a difference between money politics and cost politics, and this is regulated in KPU regulations. So the consumption price has been regulated. “In the old PKPU, it would be possible to provide (money) for consumption and transportation, limited per person to IDR 50 thousand maximum,” he explained.
During this campaign period, Bawaslu (Election Supervision Agency) was everywhere from the national to the village level. However, lubricant politics to achieve victory in elections still occurs.
Cadres used various creative methods. However, if money politics still occurs and is reported, of course it must be accompanied by evidence such as the identity of the perpetrator, photos and videos of the person making the bribery attempt. (ps/ka)