Anticorruption moves: 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.