The Politics of Money
Money and Political Culture is necessary for democratic politics, and political parties must have access to funds to play their part in the political process.
These are critical questions and scenarios if the “Rakyat” are to elect politicians/ candidates;
1. What effect does money have on politics, at what point does money corrupt elections, and when will the monetary cost of winning elections stop escalating?
2. So how does money get into the political system?
3. When Election Commission failed to manage, oversee, and regulate the electoral process; vote-buying exists?
4. There are at least three kinds of politicians with enough money win election:
a. Politicians that are wealthy individuals or well-to-do.
b. Politicians that raise the most cash through contributions.
c. Politicians that are alliance to a big and rich political party.
5. There are at least seven known political financing resources to win election:
a. “Hard Money” is money contributed directly to a candidate or to a political party.
b. “Soft Money” is money contributed to organizations and committees rather than to candidates and parties.
c. “Seed Money” is money advance to finance the political campaign which is used to negotiate a project and/or business or “special privilege”.
d. “Coupon Money” is a campaign voucher contributed by a party to ease voters’ logistics cost in return for their voting support.
e. “Matching Funds” are subsidies limited to pro-government candidates.
f. “Public Financing” is government funding to mobilize government machinery to support government campaigning programs, electoral commission, policing and security need.
g. “Private Funding” fund-raising from private donors to finance political campaigns which generally come from private individuals, as well as groups such as trade unions and corporations. An example “CSR”.
Notes: Plainly stated, donations buy access to politicians.
My apology, it’s my personal opinion. Thank you.
MONEY = POWER
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