Eradicating of corruption is 'impossible'

JAKARTA (JP): Eradication of corruption is impossible, State Minister of Administrative Reforms T.B. Silalahi said yesterday.

He told a discussion on future leaders that corruption was impossible to eradicate because it was common throughout the world.

"We can only minimize corruption," he said in the discussion held by the Moslem Students Association.

He conceded that his office had had problems determining the cause of corruption despite the existence of complete laws and regulations which could jail corrupt people. He said there were also mechanisms to prevent corruption.

He said the campaign against corruption was such an uphill battle that it should be initiated by "clean and authorized government officials".

"The anticorruption drive should be a top-down policy," he said. "You only need to dismiss a corrupt person from his office. That's all."

But he acknowledged that dismissing corrupt officials might be easier said than done. "Indonesians are well-known for their kindness. They don't usually have the heart to press for heavy sanctions against corrupt people," he said.

The minister said it was wrong to say that corruption was monopolized by government officials.

"The amount of corruption in the private sector is more horrifying than in government offices," he said.

Silalahi, also president commissioner of the Army-owned Bank Artha Graha, cited several cases of bad debts at state and private banks as a symptom of corruption.

He said that many people had used low wages as an excuse to be corrupt.

"The government, in this case, has always made an effort to improve its employees' welfare," he said.

The problem was that improving welfare did not always mean better productivity, he said.

"In Jakarta, staff with higher salaries are absent from offices more frequently than those on lower salaries," he said.

"You cannot guarantee that they will not be corrupt, either," he added.

Silalahi said Indonesians need not be depressed about the country's record of corruption.

"I am optimistic that we can minimize corruption some day in the future," he said, adding that Indonesia had achieved high economic growth in recent years.

The 1996 survey of the Hong Kong-based Politics and Economy Risk Consultancy (PERC) disclosed that Indonesia ranked third of the overall 12 most corrupt Asian countries. China came first, followed by Vietnam. (imn)