Crime pays a bundle, while corruption rules govt: LIPI
Crime pays a bundle, while corruption rules govt: LIPI
Margaret Agusta, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In Indonesia, crime pays and it pays enormously well, a socio-
political researcher said at the seminar on "Culture as
Inspiration for an Enlightened Indonesia from the Viewpoint of
Economics and Politics" presented by Executive magazine and the
Gugus Nusantara Movement, here on Thursday.
Mochtar Pabotinggi, a respected researcher at the National
Institute of Sciences (LIPI), told the seminar at Hotel Aryaduta
that corruption has been increasing steadily at all levels of
government. This was due to the failure of reform measures, a
deficit of moral leadership, a weakening legal structure, and the
lack of public pressure for an accountable government, he
elaborated.
"It is a public secret just how rich our representatives in
office are becoming," Mochtar told the audience of businessmen,
intellectuals, political activists and educators.
"In this era of negative political transition -- over the past
three years -- not only are members of our legislature getting
exponentially richer, but also our members of the executive and
judicial segments of government, at both national and provincial
levels.
In this situation in which impunity reigns. We are
experiencing political, economic, legal, and leadership
bankruptcy," he continued.
"In such a situation, crime does pay and it pays enormously.
The mind-set of impunity has led to the criminal abuse of
authority, that shows no sense of shame, making the continuum of
ethics, rationality and accountability impossible to implement."
Leon Agusta, an intellectual, who presented a paper on the
role of culture in reformation, told the gathering that without
an educated, well-informed public, Indonesia could never hope to
hold its leadership accountable.
Only a public that fully exercises its right to "know," and
its responsibility to hold its leadership and bureaucracy
accountable, would make reformation a reality, she explained.
"Even though we are now 58 years independent, with the kind of
leadership we have at this time, our existence as a nation-state
seems insubstantial. We do not yet have a well-informed society
that can exert control over its own government," Leon said.
Both speakers agreed that there could be no immediate solution
to the crisis of ethics now facing Indonesia, but said education
was the key to the creation of a stronger ethical foundation on
which to build a more responsible society.
Another speaker at the seminar, Revrisond Baswir, a professor
of economics at the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta,
suggested that increasing the incomes of civil servants could
reduce corruption.