Haryanti Puspa Sari, Icha Rastika, Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says that 354 out of the 580 new members of the House of Representatives (DPR) for the 2024-2029 period are affiliated with business.

This figure was obtained by ICW based on an investigation using publicly available data from July 31 to September 22.

"So out of the 580 members who were inaugurated yesterday, at least 60 percent of the 580 have business affiliations", said ICW political corruption division staff member Yassar Aulia as broadcast on the ICW YouTube channel on Friday October 4.

Aulia said that these business affiliations can be seen from the direct and indirect relationship of DPR members with private legal entities, whether they or their families hold positions of director, commissioner, CEO or shareholder.

"And we narrowed this down though direct self-affiliation when, for example, they have a close family relative, such as their wife, husband, child, father, mother, for example, who has a business, we also categorise that as having an affiliation", he said.

Aulia said that all of the political parties that made it into parliament contributed members of the DPR who are affiliated with business.

Based on ICW's data, the most business-affiliated DPR members are from president elect Prabowo Subianto's Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) with 65 out of 86 Gerindra members in the DPR affiliated with business.

This was followed by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 63 out of 110 members in the DPR affiliated with business, then the Golkar Party with 60 out of 102 members.

Next the National Awakening Party (PKB) with 42 out of 68 members in the DPR affiliated with business, then the National Democrat Party (NasDem) with 41 out of 69 members.

Then the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) with as many as 30 out of the 53 members affiliated with business, while the National Mandate Party (PAN) has as many as 28 out of 48 business affiliated members. Lastly, the Democrat Party with 24 out of the 44 members affiliated with businesses.

"All the parties have legislators who can be categorised by ICW as business politicians", he said.

Aulia also said that based on distribution by provinces, the most business-affiliated DPR members came from East Java (63 legislators), West Java (53 legislators) and Central Java (50 legislators).

High political costs

Aulia said that the increasing trend of DPR members being affiliated with business was partly due to the high cost of politics in Indonesia, both for campaigning and organising within the party.

"Moreover for DPR members who were contesting [a seat in] the legislature the other day [on February 14], there were some who said they had to spend 80 M (80 billion rupiah)", he said.

Furthermore, he said, this situation will result in a democracy that is very transactional and rent seeking, where the public function of drafting legislation is used as a means to maintain wealth.

"The legislative functions that should accommodate the interests of as many people as possible will instead be used as a means to accumulate and maintain their wealth", he said.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "ICW: 60 Persen Anggota DPR RI Terafiliasi Bisnis".]

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2024/10/04/10381901/icw-60-persen-anggota-dpr-ri-terafiliasi-bisnis