Help eradicate corruption

Help eradicate corruption

Nothing manifests the sheer destructive lunacy of some Western
organizations' policies toward Indonesia, as the present campaign
to stop the International Monetary Fund and World Bank from
aiding Indonesia until illegal logging here comes to an end.

Illegal logging is just one symptom of the absence of law and
order, and the ubiquitous presence of corruption in this country.
The other symptoms, such as mass ethnic killings, human rights
abuses, burgeoning crime, poverty and deprivation are much more
severe and, by rights, should concern the international community
far more. These symptoms, however, are more difficult for the
West to relate to as their correction requires much more than
just a desire to salve consciences and demonstrate self-
righteousness, but, instead, necessitates a proper understanding
of the complexities of the social, political and economic
equation here. It seems that Western simplistic populism has
learned nothing from the East Timor debacle.

What Western organizations should be doing is encouraging the
plowing of money and expertise into strengthening order based on
the rule of law, and in the process, helping to eradicate
Indonesia's cancer of corruption. Then, to be sure, not only will
the trees and wildlife of Indonesia benefit, but human respect,
decency and humanity itself will also be advanced.

FRANK RICHARDSON

Tangerang, Banten