God's grace, good governance and our reputation

God's grace, good governance and our reputation

Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta

The Baiturrahman Grand Mosque stood tall amidst the rubble in
Banda Aceh. The main mosque in Meulaboh, a town on the western
coast of Aceh, was also among the very few buildings still left
standing. Further to the south on Pulau Nias, a church suffered
minor damage while most other buildings on the island crumbled.

Many, though not all, houses of prayer in disaster-stricken
areas of Aceh and North Sumatra provinces simply refused to give
in when most other structures -- houses, shops, schools and
government office buildings -- either collapsed after the
magnitude-9.0 earthquake, or were swept away by the tsunami on
Dec. 26

Many believers, Muslim or Christian, attribute this phenomenon
to the grace of God. Some would even call it a miracle that can
only be explained in terms of divine intervention.

And it is just as well that these buildings survived. Muslims
treat every mosque as a House of God. And in the aftermath of the
disaster, many turned to God to find solace, sanctuary, hope and
explanation for the suffering and misery inflicted upon them. It
certainly helped that these houses of prayer remained intact.

However, there is another more mundane explanation for the
defiance of mosques and churches in the face of an act of God:
They were simply better built than most other buildings. They
used proper materials and they observed the rules and codes to
ensure safety, comfort and strength against wear and tear and
possible natural disasters.

This says a lot about the condition of most other buildings:
They were simply not built to the same standards observed in
constructing mosques and churches. And this in turn says a lot
about the culture of corruption prevalent in Indonesia.

If you have ever built a house, or been involved in building
one, you may know what it is like. Unless you have a trusted
contractor, preferably a close relative, or a trusted supervisor,
you would expect to be shortchanged by the builders as they tried
to shave costs here and there, maximizing their profit at your
expense.

The builder will still deliver you a house whose appearance
seems to meet your expectations. But you know very well that
somehow you have been shortchanged -- that cement and other
building materials have been siphoned off, and that in all
likelihood, the safety of your building has been compromised.

You have come to accept this, nevertheless, because you know
very well that there is not much you can do about it. You can't
prove it. And you may have come to accept this because you know
very well that this is the "normal" practice in Indonesia.

No contractor or builder, however corrupt he may be, would
shortchange God. Thus, mosques and churches are inevitably
stronger and safer structures than most other buildings.

Shortchanging, siphoning off, embezzling, marking-up -- these
are common practices in everyday transactions in Indonesia. They
come under one grand title: corruption.

Six years after Indonesians rid themselves of one of the
world's most corrupt regimes, this nation continues to struggle
with this malignant disease. It has simply refused to go away. If
anything, corruption has become even more prevalent because of
the growing perception that this is a crime that you can get away
with, and worst still, because of the growing perception that
just about everybody is doing it, albeit in different measures.

Now, with billions of dollars of foreign assistance pouring in
to Indonesia to finance the massive reconstruction in Aceh and
North Sumatra, questions should be asked as to whether we can be
trusted with so much money that has been donated so generously by
governments and people all around the world.

Many people are asking whether governments around the world
will really honor these pledges worth hundreds of millions of
dollars. Few people, however, are asking whether Indonesia can,
or should, be entrusted with that kind of money when the country
remains, according to Transparency International, one of the most
corrupt in the world.

It is probably just as well that Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh,
who is on trial for corruption charges, is being kept safely in
Jakarta away from the truck loads of money that are now pouring
into his province.

There is, however, no guarantee that others, in Aceh, Jakarta
or anywhere else in Indonesia, will not prey on the money that
rightly belong to disaster victims.

The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must set
up a mechanism that guarantees transparency and accountability
for every cent of the money intended to help the victims. Good
governance, which to date has been nothing more than lip service,
has never been so important for Indonesia as it is now following
the disaster in northern Sumatra.

Governments and people all around the world have dug deep into
their pockets to raise more than US$5 billion to be donated to
the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, Sri
Lanka, the Maldives and a handful of other affected countries.
The global response to this catastrophe has no precedent.
Indonesia, which suffered the worst of the calamity, will receive
the lion's share of that money.

Our reputation and credibility as a nation is at stake. If we
can't handle this, and if money so generously donated for victims
of the disasters is embezzled, siphoned off, marked-up -- in
other words, corrupted -- it will bring a terrible shame to this
nation.

The writer is editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post.