A thief who cries thief

A thief who cries thief, or maling teriak maling, is a famous old Indonesian expression that has come back into vogue with the dawn of the government's latest corruption campaign. In today's political context, the expression translates into corruptors crying corruption, that is, those who cry the loudest about waging the war against corruption are, in all likelihood, corrupt themselves.

True or not, this reflects the high level of public cynicism, and downright pessimism, that this official anticorruption campaign has already come up against.

For the last 10 years or so, this nation has been spoonfed such rhetoric by presidents Soeharto, B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri, and now, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

These leaders not only failed to stem the problem, very often, they, or those close to them, took advantage of their powerful positions to amass more power and wealth. The fact that this country went bankrupt in 1998 -- because corruption had gotten so out of control -- and had to be bailed out by the international community, was seemingly not enough to convince the four presidents since then to deal with corruption more seriously.

Corruption has not been wiped out. If anything, because of the legal impunity, there are indications that the problem has become more serious. The democratization and decentralization of powers we have seen in the last six years, as part of national reforms, have also democratized and decentralized corruption.

Anyone who is doing business in this country will attest that, if in the Soeharto years you only needed to make a one-time payment, or bribe one official to smoothen most transactions, today, you have to make several payments to officials of different levels -- and you still do not know where you stand.

Business analyst Lin Che Wei told a seminar in Singapore this week that under Soeharto we had the "certainty of corruption", as compared with the "uncertainty of corruption" today. Both are bad, but for practical purposes, most businessmen would opt for the first scenario. As corrupt as the Soeharto regime was, it was also functional.

There are glimmers of hope, even as the public's cynicism increases.

Susilo, with the support of a collection of small political parties, was elected president in September, beating the formidable party machine of the incumbent, Megawati. He won through his platform of change, and by this, many voters expected him to address the corruption problem. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) also scored well in the April legislative election, thanks to its strong stance against corruption.

Since taking up the presidency in October, Susilo seems to have made all the right moves to indicate his seriousness about fighting corruption. He has made all his Cabinet members sign a contract pledging to remain clean. He has appointed Abdul Rahman Saleh, a judge highly respected for his honesty, attorney general to lead the campaign. And he has signed letters, giving the go-ahead to police or state prosecutors to launch corruption investigation against once-powerful governors, regency chiefs, mayors, and members of the national and local legislatures.

On Thursday, he issued Presidential Instruction No. 5/2004 setting out a new national action plan to fight corruption. The plan includes urging all officials to avoid family businesses and ensure transparency in state affairs.

If the public response to this latest official overture has been lukewarm at best, that is because we have heard it all before. What we have not seen, to date, is any evidence of the government's commitment to ensuring that corruption is no longer a crime that pays handsomely.

Unfortunately, this government also comes with heavy political baggage, which undermines the credibility of its latest anticorruption campaign.

The presence of people with dubious track records in the Cabinet, in the House of Representatives, and in the newly inaugurated People's Representatives Council, raise questions among the public about the seriousness and effectiveness of the campaign. Sadly, many of these people were elected democratically, giving them not just legitimacy but tacitly endorsing their corrupt practices. So confident are they of their impunity that, shamelessly, some of them put in an appearance at the "Cry Against Corruption" night organized by 100 artists last week.

Transparency International Indonesia, in a survey published on Thursday, says the House of Representatives and the political parties are perceived by the public as the most corrupt of all state institutions. Yet, they are the ones who are supposed to represent the people and the first ones to cry maling should irregularities surface.

It would seem that there is no English equivalent to maling teriak maling. Could this expression be unique to the Indonesian language? No doubt. What we know for sure is that only in Indonesia can a thief cry thief, and get away with it.