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