Anticorruption measures: Small steps, big results

Anticorruption measures: Small steps, big results

Patrick Guntensperger
Business Consultant
Jakarta
ttpguntensperger@hotmail.com

As Indonesia will have a new government in place very soon,
now is the time for us to start considering what we want in terms
of new policies, procedures and services. While enormous,
sweeping changes are needed in order to reverse the tide of
corruption in this country, small steps should not be eschewed.

The small steps recommended here are intended to have an
effect in two ways; in the first place, they should add a little
efficiency to the civil service and in the second place, they
will reflect the new thinking that should be encouraged in the
people of Indonesia.

The new thinking, of course, is the paradigm shift to the
perspective that the civil service, indeed all government, is the
servant of the people rather than the reverse. Whether such a
paradigm shift can be accomplished in gradual stages is an open
question; let's hope that it can.

If democracy is to be the way of life in Indonesia, that
paradigm shift must occur; if it isn't done in gradual stages, we
must recognize that it may very well occur in a sudden violent
confrontation, and that is something nobody wants.

One small step is to start making the government more
accessible to the people. Every government office that deals
directly with the public should be made more user-friendly. For
example, in any place where people are required to queue up in
order to acquire permits, licenses, documents or services, there
should be prominently displayed signs that list the actual fees
for those items.

A small detail like that will increase efficiency and decrease
the frustration level of those who have to stand in a queue for
hours simply to ask the cost of, say, a building permit. It will
act as a minor anti-corruption measure because the officials
responsible for processing the request will find it slightly more
difficult to charge whatever they think they can get away with.

If, along with the information regarding the legal price of
those government services, a line or two were added to inform
people that it is a criminal offense for a government employee to
solicit additional payment for providing these services, another
small increment in the direction of efficiency, good government
and the paradigm shift will have been contributed.

A phone number to report demands for graft would go even
further in the right direction. Someone on the other end of the
phone line who could actually do something about a report of
corruption would go further still.

None of these suggestions are radical steps. None of them cost
much. If a government that had taken a position against
corruption in the public service initiated them, it would be an
indicator to the public that the issue was being taken seriously
and that the government was actually listening to the people.

If these steps were to be taken as part of a broader, more
comprehensive campaign to clean up the embarrassing level of
graft and corruption, the international community would start to
look at Indonesia in a different light.

If international corporations, investors, NGOs and
organizations of all sorts were to detect the beginnings of a
tendency towards reliability, integrity and accountability in
Indonesia's domestic government, the economic climate would
improve dramatically and immediately.

A commitment on the part of any new government in Indonesia to
small matters, to details like the efficient, honest day-to-day
management of domestic affairs would be perceived by the
international investment community as an indicator that Indonesia
is approaching maturity. They would know that she was worthy of
being considered for investment and, eventually, for inclusion as
a player in the game of geopolitical economics rather than merely
as a piece to be shoved around on the board.

The hard truth is that right now, the rest of the world does
simply not take Indonesia seriously. Those who might otherwise
bring their interests, needs, talents and, most importantly,
money, to this country, consider the level of corruption in this
country to be comical. They can afford to laugh at us, because
they are not directly affected; they are not directly affected
because their caution warns them to stay away. That is a tragedy.

Indonesia has one of the largest populations in the world,
abundant natural resources, ready-made foreign and domestic
markets for her products and a population of intelligent,
energetic people.

However, Indonesia suffers from her well-deserved reputation
as one of the most corrupt countries on the planet and is at the
very bottom of the list of places people are interested in
investing in. Small steps can begin to change that.

Indonesia needs dramatic measures to effect the changes that
will reverse the economic situation that ensures her position as
the classic example of a backwards Third World country. But until
a leader with the vision and the courage to take those dramatic
measures emerges, we can demand that these small steps be taken.

These small steps and hundreds of other similar, obvious,
inexpensive steps will contribute to an atmosphere that will
bring about enormous change for the better. The elections are
coming. It's up to us.