Every election season, Indonesia produces countless stories about “politik uang”, which literally translates to “money politics” and involves politicians being uncharacteristically generous in that they give money and goods to constituents in order to buy their votes.
With just under one year left until the next general elections, we have our first major politik uang story courtesy of an anonymous social media account that has gained a massive following for exposing all that’s wrong with Indonesian politics.
Twitter account @PartaiSocmed yesterday tweeted this photo of a red envelope, bearing the insignia of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and photos of two of its cadres, containing bills amounting to IDR300K (US$19.78) which were allegedly given out to Muslims who attended the taraweh (evening Ramadan prayer) at a mosque in Sumenep, East Java.
The account mentioned Bawaslu (General Election Supervisory Body) in the tweet, which has been viewed 2.3 million times as of this article’s publication.
A video showing a man handing out the envelopes in the mosque soon followed.
One of the men whose photo was on the envelope is House of Representatives (DPR) member Said Abdullah. The PDI-P politician yesterday denied he is guilty of politik uang, and said that he and fellow party cadres have routinely been giving away money since 2006 as a form of alms towards less fortunate citizens in his constituency.
“If there’s a perception that this is part of politik uang, then they’re knocking on the wrong door. I have to say this as clearly as possible: I receive a money incentive from DPR when we go into recess. I donate all of the money in its entirety to the people,” Said said.
“As part of my accountability to the public, I make this known via the media as well.”
Said added that he may press charges against @PartaiSocmed for defamation.
As for why the envelopes had to bear his photo and the PDI-P logo, Said insists that he and other party cadres are not breaching any election laws.
“We are doing this outside of the campaign period as set by the KPU (General Election Commission)… KPU hasn’t even validated all the legislative nominees yet,” he said.
Politicians may campaign from Nov. 28, 2023 to Feb. 10, 2024. Indonesians are going to the polls on Feb. 14, 2024.
