'Failure to queue related to corruption'

'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.