In collaboration between the Constitutional Court and Musamus University, Zulkifli Aspan, a lecturer at the Hasanuddin Faculty of Law, presented the phenomenon of individuals or cadres from political parties involved in corruption cases. Public Relations. Friday (8/16/2024). Photo by MKRI.

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JAKARTA, Public Relations of the MKRI – In order to increase the understanding of Pancasila, the Constitution, the Constitutional Court (MK), and the constitutional rights of citizens, the Court held a Constitutional Webinar entitled "Ensnaring Cadres, Release the Political Parties" online on Friday (8/16/2024). In this webinar, which was held in collaboration between the Court and Musamus University, Zulkifli Aspan, who is a lecturer at the Hasanuddin Faculty of Law, delivered the phenomenon of individuals or cadres from political parties (parpol) being involved in corruption cases.

JAKARTA (MKRI) — Friday, August 16, 2024

"Political corruption that occurs in Indonesia is positively correlated with the disbursement of political party funds to finance the political activities, both on a national scale such as Hambalang, Wisma Atlet, e-KTP, corruption by regional heads, so it is suspected that corruption in Indonesia is positively correlated with funding activities and disbursement of political parties to find sources of funds," he said.

According to him, this should become the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)'s national agenda to carry out an anti-corruption strategy so that this can be minimized. He further said that politics is often not in line with  the rule of law, but running according to influence, money, family, social status and military power. Lev's opinion suggests a correlation between the factors of non-functioning of the rule of law, political games, pressure from dominant groups and corruption factors. Corruption in the New Order (Orba) era is an authentic example of the practice of political corruption on a very massive and extreme scale.

"Political parties are the dominant entities that greatly influence the emergence of corruption," said Zulkifli.

Therefore, continued Zulkifli, it is appropriate to pay more attention to political parties. However, so far the party protecting themselves to individual responsibility.

“Many parties believe that political parties must be criminally responsible if they are proven of receiving corruption funds flow. This is based on the principle that political parties as legal entities can also commit criminal acts and must be responsible for it. "The flow of corruption funds to political parties is considered an official party action, not just a personal action of cadres," he explained.

On the other hand, Zulkifli continued, there are also those who have opinion that it is difficult to conclude that acts of cadre corruption are official party actions. Political parties will usually claim that the acts of corruption were only carried out by cadres personally, not on behalf of the party. This is a major challenge in determining the criminal responsibility of political parties.

At the end of his presentation, Zulkifli emphasized that encouraging responsibility and criminal sanctions against political parties (political parties) that are proven to have committed corruption crimes requires the need to provide shock therapy as an ijtihad for post-reform political consolidation in relation to the goal of eradicating corruption.

He also suggested that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) could use the Corruption Law with the phrase "legal entity" instead of the phrase "every person" to bring political parties to justice, accompanied by sanctions for returning state losses and fines. Administrative sanctions can also be applied through freezing through the Ministry of Law and Human Rights or dissolving the political party through the Constitutional Court when the KPK's accusations and lawsuits can be proven.

For the information, the first Constitutional Webinar activity was held by the Faculty of Law, Pancasakti University, Tegal, Central Java and the Faculty of Law, Sebelas Maret State University, closing the series of 2024 Constitutional Webinar activities.

The Court as one of the actors in judicial power also takes responsibility for spreading and developing a culture of constitutional awareness. The coordination meeting was held to prepare for the 2024 Constitution Webinar series for Increasing Constitutional Awareness Culture which will start from July to December 2024.

Author            : Utami Argawati
Editor             : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator       : Donny Yuniarto (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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