Fighting KKN

Fighting KKN

In Belgium, TVs are not subject to any sort of luxury tax,
like in Indonesia. Still, here also, industry players keep
complaining about other issues, such as labor-related ones. I
mean industry players are never glad -- and certainly, in
countries such as Indonesia, they hardly complain about
corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN), of which they
appreciate the convenience.

This being said, instead of getting more money in the state
coffers through taxation, the Indonesian government needs to
fight much more efficiently KKN within the ranks of the finance
ministry and other ministries. However, this is an old song,
well-known to everybody.

You cannot ask civil servants to do their job "properly" when
people within all governing bodies of Indonesia are not setting a
good example, and never creating a good condition for civil
servants to work in, "cleanly". All these civil servants have
personal priorities, such as their family's day-to-day
requirements for a better life. If I were a civil servant in
Indonesia, maybe I would not act differently from the average
Indonesian civil servant. .

Like any other civil servant in Indonesia, I would have to
benefit one way or another from my position, because my wage
would be not enough to make a living. And, maybe I would take
money from the taxpayers myself -- knowing that if I did not, my
boss would anyway.

When you are a civil servant within a system, you are never a
hero. You just have to do the best you can. That is why the kind
of leadership exercised by the present president is crucial. The
fight against KKN is a fight from the top to the bottom, and not
the other way around.

YVAN MAGAIN
Tubize, Belgium