Unpacking the Cycle of Pork Barrel Politics in Election Corruption in Indonesia

Yayang Nanda Budiman, SH

Contributor

02 May 2025 · 13:01 02 May 2025 13:01 WIB 6 minutes reading time: 6 minutes 2 read

This paper highlights the practice of pork barrel politics in Indonesia, where state budgets are misused for electoral interests.

Unpacking the Cycle of Pork Barrel Politics in Election Corruption in Indonesia

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Table of Contents

Political Corruption and Democracy that has Plunged
Uncovering the Root of the Problem

Section 3/3: Uncovering the Root of the Problem

Uncovering the Root of the Problem

So, is there a solution to uncover the root of this problem? First, we need to return to the basic principles of democracy: justice and transparency. Elections cannot be positioned as an arena for politicians to use state money and public office for short-term interests.

Therefore, a signal of improvement and massive reform in the election system, and the ethics of public officials in managing the state budget, is an urgency that must be put forward.

Secondly, to break the culture of pork barrel politics, there needs to be a stricter monitoring system of every word and action of public officials so that there is no abuse of power in supporting one of the candidates who contributed to the election contest by using equipment provided by the state.

In addition, the main challenge in efforts to enforce the law against political corruption in Indonesia is very complex, with a number of the most prominent aspects such as non-neutral power intervention in the election contest and the selective independence of law enforcement agencies.

This political intervention often occurs in various forms of patterns, ranging from direct intervention to other more subtle ways to influence the direction of the election competition that is being held.

Strengthening the independence and sharpness of supervisory institutions, both from within the government and civil society, must be empowered so that they can monitor and oversee every election process that is free from all forms of fraud committed.

In this case, the role of the mass media also has a strategic position in monitoring the behavior of power that is not transparent, abuses its position and harms the interests of the people.

But what is more important than all of that is the collective awareness of the public that must be reawakened. Without being supported by a paradigm transformation from a society as constituents who were previously oriented towards money to being lulled by sweet promises or short-term projects, they must switch to a voter perspective that prioritizes rationality and criticism.