Anti-Corruption Efforts Deemed Ineffective if Focused Only on Perpetrators, System Must Be Reformed

Jakarta – Legal and political observer Pieter C. Zulkifli stated that anti-corruption efforts will never achieve significant results if they only focus on the perpetrators. The government should not neglect reforming the system that allows corrupt practices to continue.

According to him, amidst various anti-corruption operations continuously carried out by law enforcement, the public still harbours a major question: why does corruption keep growing and recurring from one regime to the next?

“This fact shows that the problem of corruption is not sufficiently understood as merely an individual crime, but is closely related to the political-economic structure that shapes power relations in Indonesia,” Pieter said in his statement in Jakarta, Monday, 15 June 2026.

Pieter stated that corruption never truly disappears because the problem lies not only with the perpetrators, but with the political-economic system that continues to provide space for the abuse of power.

For him, eighty years after independence, Indonesia is still facing a seemingly never-ending problem: corruption. Corruption is not just an individual crime, but has transformed into part of the operational mechanism of a deeply rooted political-economic system.

“Corruption is no longer a deviation from the system, but often becomes the fuel that keeps the system running,” he said.

The former Chairman of Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) said the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), born in the Reform era, was one of the important milestones in the history of Indonesian democracy. The KPK was once a symbol of hope that the state still had the courage to fight against the abuse of power.

However, he said, as time passed, public trust in the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts began to erode. The criticism that emerged was not solely because many corruption cases still occurred, but because of the perception that anti-corruption efforts often proceed unevenly.

“In various academic and political discussions, a view has emerged that the anti-corruption agenda is sometimes used as an instrument to suppress political opponents, while larger forces are difficult to touch. Whether this perception is true or not, one thing is certain: justice must be seen to work equally in order to gain public legitimacy,” he said.