'Failure to queue related to corruption'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Queuing and corruption are two different things. But they are closely related.

The reluctance to line up in Indonesia provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption, collusion, and nepotism in society, say sociologists.

Ery Seda from the University of Indonesia in Jakarta and Hotman Siahaan from Surabaya's Airlangga University, both agreed in separate interviews with The Jakarta Post that people's unwillingness to queue was a major problem.

Not only did it reflect people's failure to respect the rights of the others, it also partly explained why corruption was rampant here.

Ery said that the public's tendency to break the line had much to do with primitive feelings and the sense of "togetherness" among people of the same race, religion and ethnic group, feelings which still played a dominant role in society.

People sometimes felt uncomfortable if they did not give privileges or priority to those who had close communal ties with them, she said. And to get such privileges, many people would not hesitate to set aside the interests of others.

In the case of lining up, they would just break the line because they felt they had the right to a privilege.

"Such feelings provide fertile ground for corruption, collusion, and nepotism," Ery said.

Separately, Hotman said that the public's inability to queue was deeply rooted in certain norms of traditional Indonesian culture, norms which were highly detrimental to society.

"Our society has no tradition of respecting other people's rights," he said.

The selfish desire to enjoy a privilege at the expense of others, like the tradition of presenting upeti (gifts) to the ruler, for example, could be behind the current practice of jumping the queue.

In modern society, according to Ery, even though breaking the line is harmful to others, people were not ashamed to do so as there was no social stigma involved.

They enjoyed the safety by hiding behind the mask of anonymity.

"They don't know each other so they can do what they like even if it is harmful to other people, without fear of any social sanction," Ery said.

The lack of legal sanctions also meant that it was difficult to force people to queue up, she added.