Breaking the vicious circle?

A rating of 1.9 out of 10 to mark Indonesia's place regarding corruption leaves one speechless. The Corruption Perception Index recently issued by the Berlin-based Transparency International, only served to confirm the sense of helplessness against this pervasive practice. A grade of 1.9 can only mean that we are beyond salvation. The grade was the average figure of grades 0.7 to 2.9 compiled from 13 surveys, conducted from June 2002 through June 2003. We must be stuck in this swamp of bribes, extortion, "money politics", embezzlement of state funds, kickbacks ...

So why the optimistic-looking picture in this paper last week of the broadly smiling leaders of the largest Muslim organizations, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)? Were A. Syafii Maarif and Hasyim Muzadi entirely oblivious of their "mission impossible," which, as they stated, was to end corruption?

It was reported that their joint effort, marked in a Memorandum of Understanding signed Wednesday, was a "cultural movement" and it is this potential that apparently led to the support of the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, a non-governmental organization working with donor agencies.

With their latest combined membership figures of 70 million in rural and urban areas across the country, the success of such a movement would at least mean that each member could be made aware that corruption is not a tolerable act. If those 70 million each had at least one relative or dependent to whom that realization could spread, the total of people affected would be no mean figure out of our 220-million strong population.

This could further lead to, among other things, a new understanding that having a position or a job does not equate to a golden opportunity to "help" one's friends or relatives through the use of all the resources within one's reach. The noble task of aiding relatives and friends in need is among the culturally influenced values that justifies corruption, a NU executive said following the signing of the agreement.

The beginning of the NU-Muhammadiyah joint effort is thus one step out of the jungle that deserves our strong support, as the Islamic organizations have very importantly, through their gesture, expressed their acknowledgement of what is surely the greatest enemy to our society -- and that they are willing to try, with their millions of followers, to fight it.

In this bleak scene of ours there have actually been a couple of milestones to support the anticorruption drive. We now have the Anticorruption Law passed last year. The new Anticorruption Commission is starting the process of selecting candidates, and those involved must work hard to prove the skeptics wrong. It is hoped to be a breakthrough if it is really empowered to take over the responsibility of the police and the Attorney General's Office in handling big corruption cases.

People cannot be blamed for the apathy and skepticism greeting every anticorruption effort, given the obvious incapacity of the very institutions in charge of enforcing the law -- the police and the courts, along with government bodies such as the Cabinet and the legislature, as reflected in various cases and surveys.

In such a whirling vicious circle it is indeed left to the people to take the lead. Earlier there was the Bung Hatta Anti Corruption Award, which has began the task of finding a few needles in the haystack, to recognize the rare individuals fighting corruption in corrupt environments. There was also the rise of the business community's fight against bribes, which was launched by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry or Kadin Indonesia, as the businesses are among those directly affected by corruption.

Yet in the face of these initiatives and milestones looms the display of a lack of political will. In a recent remark President Megawati Soekarnoputri dismissed suggestions that the government take note of China's actions towards convicted corruptors. If I shoot them, she scoffed, the press would rush to write that the President is violating human rights. Her words seemed to reflect exasperation, while people have yet to see significant efforts on the part of her government in fighting corruption.

The partnership of the country's largest Muslim organizations may indeed be our last hope. Who else could enable 70 million people to differentiate which of all the goodies passing their way or in their reach is rightly theirs and is thus halal, or permissible.

That NU and Muhammadiyah maybe our last resort is precisely why we ask that they be consistent. If their highly respected teachers and leaders at various levels continue to welcome any contribution from any "Servant of God" (Hamba Allah) without question whatsoever, as many institutions depending on charity are prone to do, then there is little chance that their millions of followers will grasp even the faintest intention of this "cultural" fight against corruption.