Local Oligarchy and Corruption

a Final Exam Paper of Indonesia Political System subject

Written for academic purpose, uploaded for reference March 2013

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Indonesia Political System: Local Oligarchy and Corruption

Local Oligarchy and Corruption

This paper will talk about local oligarchy and the connection with corruption. The writer will explain about the case of oligarchy which is become a corruption case as well in the one of districts area in Bali, Indonesia. For that, the writer invite the readers to discuss about how the come into power and how they do with the ruling regimes. Oligarchy has become the theme being studied in ancient Greece. Aristotle dividing power in three forms: a monarch-variant of tyranny, aristocrat-variant oligarchy and polity or constitutional government 1. Oligarchy is a system of government in which virtually all political power is held by a small number of rich people but transla ted into policy through the establishment of public policy primarily to benefit them financially2. Or oligarchy could means shorter become "a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution"3. Local oligarchy usually occurs in an area where the actor of oligarchy tried to control the environment to get power. Power of the oligarchs is more likely to be used to enrich themselves. They tend to make rules, on behalf of institutions, such abuse more power for private benefit. They can create the conditions in which they are in charge of government as effective as possible for them. In which most of the political environment could not be influenced under political situations. This is because "politics" is still an elite area, and the

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Leslie Lipson, The Democratic id.shvoong.com (2011) 3 Oxford dictionary

Civilization ,

New York; Oxford University Press, 1964, page 14-16

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political elites in Indonesia still implement the authoritarian tradition inherited from the previous regime4.

The Case: Corrupt BOS Funds from Government Institution One obvious example occurs in Karangasem regency, Bali. An elementary school headmaster in the district is misusing his power and authority to use a portion of the funds BOS (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah / School Operational Aid) for their own interests. The defendant alleged corruption Bantuan Operasional Sekolah (BOS), which is the head of SDN 1 Kesimpar I Wayan Putu, S.Pd. He did not make RABS (Rancangan Anggaran Biaya Sekolah / school budgeting draft) where should RABS compiled as a r eport from the school to the government regarding the expenditure of BOS funds. Mr. Putu claimed could not make i t due to RABS do not understand the structure of the report. He also claimed that he thought it did not too necessary to make that RABS or other report. He just thought, if the school gets the funds, it means the government already did a research about the school so that the headmaster, who become the most responsible person of each BOS funds, funds, might not make the RABS. A witness who was also the treasurer of BOS in that school, Ni Made Astiti Puspawati, accused in another file, the defendant blamed his superiors, Putu, disburse its own BOS funds from a bank by himself 5. After disbursed the BOS funds, Mr. Putu cut the funds of IDR 3,000,000 for his own sake, and then handed the rest to the school's staff. Not only that, it allows co-workers to use the funds on the pretext that the BOS "borrowed" for use as a personal interest. For example, a guardman at that school borrowed IDR 11 million mill ion from the t he

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AE Priyono on a paper “Local Politics in Post New Order Indonesia”, page 1 Infokorupsi.com (2010)

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BOS funds. However, due to not being able to reimburse the loan until the deadline came, Mr. Teso, guard man committed suicide by hanging himself in a tree behind his house 6. BOS funds were a state money poured into the central government for teaching and learning activities, not private money anyone. The money was not to be lent. Total BOS funds received by SDN 1 Kesimpar in 2008 reached IDR 19.9 million 7. Acts of abuse is very detrimental to fund boss and state student. The state has set aside money to help facilitate the school in teaching and learning activities, but instead used the funds of others for their personal interests. inter ests. For the students themselves, themsel ves, who should receive tuition t uition waivers, or enjoy enjo y the facilities from the BOS funds, could not accept their rights because of the money they should have received it is used up by those who deliberately use their authority to make use of the money the right people other.

How they come into power? Case oligarchy is not new to the actors of politics. The power of oligarchy is the alliance of big business and the elite power politics, from national nati onal to local levels, which are centralized control and utilize the democratic political process through executive or legislative arena for their own political and economic interests 8. In Indonesia itself, by Vedi R. Hadiz, oligarchy has evolved since the era of the 1950s as a mix of economic nationalism that is state-centric and predatory oligarchy that collects around the country and his corps of political bureaucrats9. Being a headmaster, in another sense is a leader of a political run. Political context on this case is the school staff as a follower of politics, life as a land of political

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Infokorupsi.com (2010) Infokorupsi.com (2010) 8 Airlangga Pribadi on nasional.kompas.com 9 Vedi R Hadiz on Dinamika Kekuasaan – Kekuasaan – Ekonomi Politik Indonesia Pasca Soeharto 7

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authority and the school budget boss as a medium of political performance. As described by Vedi R. Hadiz and Richard Robison in the neo-liberal reforms and liberal consolidations that the decentralization base of the emergence of local politics ”10. The headmaster has an own

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freedom to take action and organize everything into the school. It is a very strong power for himself.

How they do with the ruling regimes? For most people perhaps the democratic political process at work in Indonesia presently is considered to be on the right track 11. But if observed, the power and the desire to enrich themselves or to meet the needs of themselves make politics actors running political process not in a rule. Back to the example of Mr. Putu. People who are supposed to disburse funds in a bank BOS is the treasurer of the school, in fact he did not have a job-description to disburse the funds. The job of principal is preparing RABS, overseeing the implementation of the agenda that has been compiled on RABS, and be responsible with the BOS funds flow to the government. But Mr. Putu decided to do all the activities related to the fund itself. That makes it for corruption or misuse of state money to private interests the staff. Departing from oligarchy framework, corruption is not an individual act. Corruption is not driven solely to enrich themselves or living hedonist and wallowing in wealth. Corruption is a strategy to maintain dominance over the state to control the allocation and distribution of public resources.

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Vedi R Hadiz; Richard Robison on a Journal of Development Studies, page 233 AE Priyono on a paper “Local Politics in Post New Order Indonesia”, page 2

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Conclusion: The connection between the oligarchs and problem of political corruptions In my view, absolutely there is connection between the oligarchy and corruption. Democracy in Indonesia lately has been dominated by oligarch

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elite, who has the dominant influence,

especially in politics and government 12. Some of the things that drive them to corruption are their oligarchy system, economic force, their own power and authority using the oligarchy as a system of government with all the political power in the hands of a small group of wealthy people who make public policy for their own financial gain, through direct subsidies to companies they owned farms or other business enterprises, government contract work of great value, as well as protectionist measures of their business in order to destroy a business rival13. Practicing oligarchy system means we do monopoly by the politics area. We do monopoly in politics and the regimes for reach our group even individual interest. We easily can make the rules, obey the rules, and break the rules at the same time. Also controlling the money flow, it is become a common situation if we find a corruption case in the oligarchy model. On this paper we had have discuss the oligarchy, it gives impact to the actors either good impact or bad. We found there are chances for the people in to do corruption even in a small amount. From the case above we know about the bad impact from corruption by using own power and authority. It could be good or even worst. The writer hopes this paper can become a good article, any comments and suggestion from the readers perhaps can make this paper better.

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AE Priyono on a paper “Local Politics in Post New Order Indonesia”, page 3 Richard Robison ; Vedi R. Hadiz, on Reorganizing Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in An Age of Markets (2004) 13

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Local Oligarchy and Corruption

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