Difficult to eradicate
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.