Difficult to eradicate
Corruption is to be found in every corner of our nation's bureaucracy, especially in the agencies in charge of issuing licenses. Thus, the people have found themselves at a loss as how to protect themselves from the corrupt officials.
In fact, the government has conducted several anti-graft campaigns and it has created many agencies to fight against corrupt practices. Yet this disgusting byproduct of the bureaucracy remains.
Former vice president Sudharmono once opened a special post office box for reports from the public on graft and other forms of corruption. Although the step received good public response initially, not much has been heard of any results recently.
On most occasions, people find themselves defenseless in the face of corrupt practices because at many government agencies, especially those in charge of issuing licenses, graft appears to have become inseparable from the usual daily activities. And corrupt officials have clearly learned how to protect themselves more and more effectively from public complaints by covering up for each other and sharing their forbidden fruit. Thus, the victims of corrupt practices who do dare to protest can find themselves in a great deal of trouble because it is very difficult to prove anything untoward actually occurred.
Thus it is probably not surprising at all to find out this week that headmasters of 20 public high schools in Jakarta have been indulging themselves in the heinous habit, albeit at a petty scale. These officials, whom many previously believed deserved the highest respect from the general public, were reprimanded by the City Office of the Ministry of Education and Culture on Tuesday for imposing "additional fees" on parents who came to enroll their children. The move was made at the order the Governor of Jakarta, Surjadi Soedirdja.
On the following day, the education office summoned all public high school headmasters in the city and will gather those of more junior rank today. However, no stern measures have been taken against anyone involved. And apparently there is no guarantee that the same misdemeanor will not happen again next year.
Officials, who have the habit of burdening the people with extra charges for their services, like to use the fact that their salaries are low and the excuse that the practice has become a sort of tradition as reasons for their actions.
Governor Surjadi has repeatedly warned officials to improve public service, but the reality remains that his appeals for honesty and integrity among the civil service have yet to be translated into concrete action against those involved in the breach of the people's trust. Perhaps spot checks by top officials into the doings of their subordinates would do something toward stopping corrupt practices.