[From an oped piece in Kompas.com by Vishnu Juwono titled "Uncovering the Network of Economic Patronage and Political Clientelism in the Vortex of the 2024 Election Cycle".]
Indonesia has once again been shocked by the latest findings announced by Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis Centre (PPATK) head Ivan Yustiavandana on the flow of suspicious funds in the state financial system.
From the results of an analysis of 1,847 financial transactions throughout 2023, it was discovered that 36.7 percent of National Strategic Project (PSN) funds actually flowed into the pockets of state civil servants (ASN) for personal interests, including investments and politicians' assets.
Observing the PSN realisation of 1,515.4 trillion rupiah, the value of the alleged corruption at 36.7 percent of total investments comes to 556.15 trillion rupiah.
These allegations were further reenforced when PPATK reported suspicious transactions worth 51 trillion rupiah from 100 candidates on the final candidate list (DCT) who participated in the 2024 elections. It was proven that these corrupt practices have had a significant impact on the high-cost of development during President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration.
This was also shown by the stagnant value of the 2023 Corruption Perception Index from Transparency International, with Indonesian scoring only 34 out of 100 and its world ranking dropping from 110th to 115th.
The Incremental Capital Output Ratio (ICOR – the amount of additional new capital expenditure needed for every percentage increase in economic growth) in the Widodo era reached 7.6.
Meanwhile the ICOR for neighbouring countries, namely Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, are in the range of 4.4-4.6, and the Philippines is only 3.7. This shows that economic patronage in Indonesia has continued to thrive since the New Order era of former president Suharto...
The full article in Bahasa Indonesia can be read here; https://www.kompas.id/baca/opini/2024/02/17/membongkar-jalinan-patronase-ekonomi-dan-politik-klientelisme-di-pusaran-pemilu-2024
