Party Financing and Political Corruption in Contemporary Indonesia

12/03/2008 - 15:30

12 March 2008
15.30 - 17.00 hrs

The Leiden Southeast Asia Seminar by Dr Marcus Mietzner, The Indonesian Institute, Jakarta.

In recent years, both domestic and international commentators have heavily criticized Indonesia's political parties for being corrupt, self-absorbed and unresponsive. In public opinion polls on Indonesia's political institutions, the parties regularly finish last in terms of their popularity, effectiveness and integrity. However, many of the criticisms have a distinctively populist tone to them, and fail to analyze the problem of political party activism in Indonesia in a structural and comprehensive manner. Most importantly, the critics often overlook the fact that Indonesia's system of party financing - or the lack thereof - leaves the parties with no other choice but to raise money from economically interested patrons and power brokers. Accordingly, the seminar
will discuss the way Indonesia's political parties finance themselves, and explains how this system has aggravated the problem of political corruption in the contemporary polity.

Marcus Mietzner is a political scientist who has been working in and on Indonesia for more than 15 years. He holds a PhD from the Australian National University, and will take up a position as Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at that university in July 2008. While at KITLV, Marcus will work on several projects. First of all, he will finalize his book manuscript on the Indonesian military, which is scheduled for publication in July 2008 at ISEAS in Singapore. Secondly, he will edit a book on Southeast Asian militaries, which has been commissioned by Routledge. Last but not least, Marcus intends to work on a new book on political parties in Indonesia, for which he has undertaken intensive field research in Indonesia for the last one and a half years. 

Venue: KITLV, Room 138, Reuvensplaats 2, 2311 BE, Leiden

For more information on this seminar please contact Yayah Siegers at siegers@kitlv.nl or 071-527 2295

The Leiden Southeast Asia Seminar is a cooperation of the IIAS, ISIM, VVI, KITLV and the Department of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, Leiden University