http://www.theage.com.au/world/thanks-for-nothing-indonesian-mps-in-line-for-2m-20100607-xqr5.html
Thanks for nothing: Indonesian MPs in line for $2m TOM ALLARD, JAKARTA June 8, 2010 IT HAS been nine months since Indonesia's new parliament convened. In that time, legislators have driven the country's most talented minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, out of the country, launched a campaign to weaken the anti-corruption watchdog and lobbied for new laptops, cars and an expensive refurbishment of their offices. What they have not done is pass a single piece of legislation. Now - under a proposal pushed by tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, who heads the secretariat for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's coalition - each of the 560 MPs could receive a $2 million windfall for their efforts. The proposal for so-called ''aspiration funds'', to be handed out by MPs to their constituents as they see fit, has prompted renewed concern about entrenched money politics and the country's work-shy politicians. ''It is clearly to recover political expenses they have incurred during the campaign,'' said Ari Dwipayana, a political scholar from the University of Gajah Mada in Yogyakarta. It is customary for Indonesian politicians to pay bribes to get preselected to run for the major political parties. That expense increases when votes are bought during the campaign proper. ''The way of thinking used by our politicians is the logic of investment,'' says Abdullah Dahlan from Indonesian Corruption Watch. ''If you invest in something, you would like to see your investment back, right? So now they need their money back, if possible with some profit.'' Pro-reform ministers such as Dr Indrawati have been trying to clean out corrupt bureaucrats and chase taxes owing from businesses, including those owned by Mr Bakrie. The response has been a concerted campaign to weaken their powers. A lengthy campaign to find out whether Dr Indrawati had engaged in wrongdoing during the bailout of Bank Century turned up nothing. But the MPs would not rest, and Dr Indrawati took a job at the World Bank. A day after her resignation was announced, Dr Yudhoyono appointed Mr Bakrie head of a new secretariat made up of his coalition partners. Mr Bakrie is the chief patron of Golkar, the party of former dictator Suharto, with strong links to the old business and bureaucratic elites. Mr Bakrie's proposal for an ''aspiration fund'' may yet founder. The outrage in the media has prompted several key MPs from Dr Yudhoyono's party and coalition partners to denounce the idea. But senior Golkar MP Harry Azhar Azis who heads parliament's powerful budget council, has threatened ongoing legislative gridlock if the funds are not dispersed to politicians. ''If the attitude of the government is like that, any talks with the government could reach a deadlock, including the 2011 state budget plan,'' he told The Jakarta Glob
