That (stopping corruption) would be a dream. The present law is good but is not realistic."Banten (ANTARA News) - House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Marzuki Alie said political parties should be allowed to set up businesses to prevent corruption in the institution.
"To improve the situation the law on political parties must be changed to allow them to set up businesses. However, the businesses must be controlled transparently," he said at a friendly gathering with newsmen covering parliament activities here on Sunday.
He said one of the factors that had caused corruption cases involving party cadres in the parliament so far was because sources of funding for political parties are not certain.
Marzuki said if the issue of funding sources was not solved, cases of corruption in the parliament would not stop. "That (stopping corruption) would be a dream. The present law is good but is not realistic," he said.
As an example he referred to a clause in the law stating that the main source of funding for political parties is members` contributions. However, the system has not worked well so far, he added.
Citing another clause, Marzuki said that the contributions are voluntary and not binding while on the other hand, political parties are also obligated to conduct political education for their cadres which certainly also requires a lot of funds.
"So, where all the money comes from. My proposal is that political parties must be allowed to have businesses so that cadres would not be burdened with raising money. That would be more realistic," he said.
"The next thing to assure is control on the businesses must be transparent, which may be done by the Supreme Audit Board or others," he said.
Marzuki said he believed change would occur if a change on the issue could be made. "If not, everything would be a mere dream," he said. (YH/S012)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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