Political Financing and It’s Impact on The Quality of Democracy in Southeast Asia
Abstract
Across the region, it is generally assumed that funding for parties and campaigns derives from sources such as membership fees, voluntary work by members and/or financial contributions by wealthy individual and interest groups. Yet what are the similarities and differences among the regimes and practices of political financing the region, and how do we understand the quality of democracy by looking at their political financing? Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar have had their elections in the past three years. The article gives an overview of the countries’ political financing regimes and/or practices to identify common denominators as well as draw linkage between political financing sources and democratic quality.
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Waitoolkiat, Napisa & Paul Chambers (2015) Political Party Finance in Thailand Today: Evolution, Reform, and Control, Critical Asian Studies, 47:4, 611-640, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.2015.1091211
Weiss, Meredith L. (2016) “Payoffs, parties, or policies:“Money politics” and electoral authoritarian resilience.” Critical Asian Studies 48.1: 77-99.
Winters, Jeffrey A. “Oligarchy and democracy in Indonesia.” Indonesia 96 (2013): 11-33.
Wright, Tom, and Bradley Hope (2015) “1MDB and the Money Network of Malaysian Politics.” Wall Street Journal, 28 December.
Chalermpalanupap, Termsak (2020) “Weak Party System Dooms Thai Political Party Reforms”, ISEAS Perspective No. 27, 8 April. https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/ uploads/2020/02/ISEAS_Perspective_2020_27.pdf
Chambers, Paul, and Napisa Waitoolkiat (2020) “Faction Politics in an Interrupted Democracy: the Case of Thailand.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 39.1: 144-166.
Chau, Johnson and John Liu (2020) “Companies in Myanmar quite about political donations,” Myanmar Times, 23 August, https://www.mmtimes.com/news/companies-myanmar- quiet-about-political-donations.html
Dettman, Sebastian, and Edmund Terence Gomez (2020) “Political financing reform: Politics, policies and patronage in Malaysia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 50.1: 36-55.
Dewayanti, Aninda and Deasy Simandjuntak (2019) “So much for eradicating corruption in Indonesia”, Channel News Asia Commentary, 27 September. https://www. channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/indonesia-protest-joko-widodo-law- corruption-code-graft-11948856
Diamond, Larry, and Leonardo Morlino (2004) “The quality of democracy: An overview.” Journal of Democracy 15.4: 20-31.
Gomez, Edmund Terence, and Joseph Tong (2018) “Financing Politics in Malaysia: Reforming the System.” Australian Journal of Asian Law 18.2.
Gomez, Edmund Terence, et al. (2018) Minister of Finance Incorporated: Ownership and control of corporate Malaysia. Springer.
Goodman, Jack (2020) “Myanmar coup: Does the army have evidence of voter fraud?” BBC, 5 February. https://www.bbc.com/news/55918746
Hamid, Usmand and Ary Hermawan (2020) “Indonesia’s omnibus law is a bust for human rights”, New Mandala, 9 October. https://www.newmandala.org/indonesias-omnibus-law-is-a- bust-for-human-rights/
International IDEA Myanmar, “2020 General Election in Myanmar – Fact Sheet” https://www. idea.int/sites/default/files/news/news-pdfs/2020-General-Election-in-Myanmar-Fact- Sheet_14-July-2020.pdf
Marcus Mietzner (2015) Dysfunction by Design: Political Finance and Corruption in Indonesia, Critical Asian Studies, 47:4, 587-610, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.2015.1079991
Mobrand, Erik, Fernando Casal Bértoa and Yukihiko Hamada (2019), “The Integrity of Political Finance Systems in Asia: Tackling Political Corruption”, International IDEA Policy Paper No. 19, https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/integrity-of-political- finance-systems-in-asia.pdf
Mohammad, Amerul Muner (2020), “Consolidate election law into one book”, New Straits Times 6 November. https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2020/11/638684/ consolidate-election-law-one-book
Mon, Swe Lei and Htin Lynn Aung (2020) “Holding the NLD to account: The money behind a winning election campaign”, Frontier, 24 December, https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/ en/holding-the-nld-to-account-the-money-behind-a-winning-election-campaign/
Norris, Pippa, and Andrea Abel Van Es, eds. (2016) Checkbook elections?: Political finance in comparative perspective. Oxford University Press.
Reuter, Thomas (2015) TRaNS: Trans–Regional and–National Studies of Southeast Asia 00:0 1–22, © Institute of East Asian Studies, Sogang University DOI:10.1017/trn.2014.23
Sachsenröder, Wolfgang (2018) Power Broking in the Shade. World Scientific Publishing Company Pte Limited.
Scarrow, Susan E. (2007) “Political finance in comparative perspective.” Annual Review of Political Science 10: 193-210.
Simandjuntak, Deasy (2015) “Persistent Patronage:Explaining the Popularity of Former Corruption Convicts as Candidates in Indonesia’s Regional Elections”, ISEAS Perspective No. 55. https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/ISEAS_Perspective_2015_55.pdf
Sirivunnabood, Punchada (2018) “Understanding Political Party Finance in Thailand: New Regulations but Old Practice.” Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 17.3: 1-14.
Sirivunnabood, Punchada (2019) “How the Thai State Subsidizes Political Parties”, ISEAS Perspective No 50. https://www.iseas.edu.sg/images/pdf/ISEAS_Perspective_2019_50.pdf
Sone, Pyae (2018) “Room for improvement: Myanmar’s campaign finance framework”, International IDEA, 11 December, https://www.idea.int/news-media/news/room- improvement-myanmar%E2%80%99s-campaign-finance-framework
Transparency International Malaysia (2011), “Submission of Memorandum or Reform of Political Financing in Malaysia” http://www.transparency.org.my/pages/what-we-do/reforming- political-financing/submission-of-memorandum-on-reform-of-political-financing-in- malaysia-to-the-prime-minister-of-malaysia
Tun, Aung (2015) “Time to Reform Campaign Financing” Myanmar Times, 7 October, https:// www.mmtimes.com/opinion/16871-time-to-reform-campaign-financing.html
Ufen, Andreas & Marcus Mietzner (2015) Political Finance Regimes in Southeast Asia: Introduction, Critical Asian Studies, 47:4, 558-563, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.2015.1082260
Von Beyme, Klaus (1985) Political parties in Western democracies. Gower Publishing Company, Limited.
Waitoolkiat, Napisa & Paul Chambers (2015) Political Party Finance in Thailand Today: Evolution, Reform, and Control, Critical Asian Studies, 47:4, 611-640, DOI: 10.1080/14672715.2015.1091211
Weiss, Meredith L. (2016) “Payoffs, parties, or policies:“Money politics” and electoral authoritarian resilience.” Critical Asian Studies 48.1: 77-99.
Winters, Jeffrey A. “Oligarchy and democracy in Indonesia.” Indonesia 96 (2013): 11-33.
Wright, Tom, and Bradley Hope (2015) “1MDB and the Money Network of Malaysian Politics.” Wall Street Journal, 28 December.
Authors
Simandjuntak, D. (2021). Political Financing and It’s Impact on The Quality of Democracy in Southeast Asia. Asia-Pacific Journal of Elections and Democracy, 1(01), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.54490/apjed.v1i01.5
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