A persistent social ill

Corruption in some developing countries is becoming a chronic social ill. Although people continue to protest the sick bureaucracy and call for a clean system, the authorities never tire of denying the charges. They continue to issue the same old statements and, logical or not, the public is left to "believe it or leave it".

History has taught us that those authorities who have failed to fight corruption have allowed corruption to defeat them. These authorities have lost their sense of shame. They have become tolerant of graft and let their subordinates continue in their illicit business dealings.

Corrupt leaders have long believed that their assets in foreign banks will continue to support their lifestyles in the case of a popular upheaval. However, Shah Reza Pahlevi had to leave his country after corruption brought him down in 1979, when he was subsequently kicked out of Iran. He died a disgraceful death in exile and his family lost the country. Ferdinand Marcos not only died in exile after being driven out for corruption and his abuse of power, but he also left his wife and son behind to face serious legal charges.

Here in Indonesia the authorities say there is no proof of serious corruption. Day after day, however, more and more people are warning that bureaucratic corruption has reached alarming proportions. Only yesterday the leaders of the 1945 Generation, an organization of senior freedom fighters, and the United Development Party issued statements reminding the power holders of this country that collusion between corrupt officials and business people has become dangerous.

The situation has worsened as small groups have monopolized economic resources necessary to the well-being of the public at large.

Last month, Der Spiegel,, an influential German magazine, included Indonesia, as well as China, Pakistan, Venezuela and Brazil, on its list of the most corrupt countries in the world. As expected, the authorities here have denied the story, which was based on a report by Transparency International, a research center at the University of Goetingen.

Naked reality makes it hard to stomach this denial, with certain officials confirming their corrupt practices in the shameless flaunting of the fruits of their graft. Some do not even try to hide what they have stolen from the state. They live in super luxury houses which they could never afford on their salaries, even if they worked for a hundred years.

These corrupt officials are satisfied with the fact that our people have apparently learned to adapt themselves to the situation. The old culture of shame, which was one of our most precious national assets, no longer exists. Traditional values and standards are disappearing. People with respectable personalities have now been forced to adapt themselves to the new situation, and they do so willingly, the Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo noted in May.

"We are now crying as we see a new standard of values in which the resourceful have become sly and the decent have become stupid," he said.

That our people are still protesting corruption 50 years after gaining independence is lamentable. It is a waste of time for the government to continue making the same old statements and denying the existence of corrupt practices. On our younger generation this just won't work. They have a morality of their own and, though possibly different from the older generation, their standards are closer to our innermost beliefs.