Corruption and Political Dynasties in East Kalimantan
Abstract
Political dynasties in East Kalimantan have shown significant
developments in the last decade. A number of factors have encouraged
political dynasties to flourish in East Kalimantan: Firstly, undemocratic
political party institutions; Secondly, political parties’ lack of capacity
to develop organizational financial independence; Thirdly, regulatory
factors that allow political dynastic consolidation; Fourthly, extremely
low political awareness among the floating mass of voters; and Fifthly,
the persistent strong feudal culture in our societal order. So, how does
corruption relate to political dynasties?
Theoretically, relationships between corruption and political dynasties
tend to be ambiguous. On the one hand, political dynasties are strongly
influenced by a ‘reputation building incentive’, aimed at building a
favorable public image. But on the other hand, political dynasties are
also strongly influenced by a ‘stockpiling-wealth incentive’. This shows
their true greedy nature through uncontrolled accumulation of wealth,
which is part of their strategy for preserving hereditary power from one
generation to the next. It is this tendency towards uncontrolled wealth
accumulation that propagates a corrupt nature. Despite their best
reputation building efforts, this true, corrupt nature is hard to conceal.
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