A thief who cries thief

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.