Honest business practices badly needed
Honest business practices badly needed
Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Noted scholar Nurcholis Madjid underscored on Saturday the
importance of honest business practices and activity in the
economy to help Indonesia out of its current economic crisis.
Honesty and integrity should be employed in all business
conduct so that gaining profits will ease burdensome laws its
procedures, Nurcholis said at a discussion entitled "Business and
Morality."
"We are often inconsistent with our own procedures in rules
and laws ... Such procedures are only applied when they benefit
certain individuals," he commented.
Speaking in his keynote address at the seminar, Nurcholish
explained that when any country tolerated collusion, corruption
and nepotistic (KKN) practices, it would be greatly hurt by its
political conduct -- one of the most critical factors in a
country's economy.
It was shameful that Indonesia, which frequently proclaims
itself a religious and constitutional country, is today branded
as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, he added.
"Religion cannot be practiced via symbols alone," he warned,
adding that in business, too, one has to transcend theory and
rhetoric to practice.
Author La Rose, another speaker, concurred with Nurcholish,
saying that corruption in the country was already considered a
lifestyle, and an essential part of the country's culture.
Depressingly, giving gifts to government officials was no
longer considered as a practice of corruption, she said.
Worst of all, it is even widely used by organizations and
individuals to avoid existing regulations and to evade taxes, she
added.
Meanwhile, Soegeng Sarjadi, president of Kodel group, said
that a fair competition among businesspeople could only be
achieved if there was no intervention from powerful individuals.
When business is mixed with politics, he noted, it often ruins
the very ethics of business, rendering it longer profitable but
instead power-oriented. It would also widen the practice of
corruption, collusion and nepotism, he said.
"The boundary must be outlined. As we can see today, there are
many politicians who are also businessmen -- and vice versa,"
Soegeng said.
But he implied that business had nothing to do with morality,
as the notion that "one reaps what one sows" was the true essence
in business.
Nevertheless, in the complexity of business activities,
businesspeople do not need to manipulate the market, he said.
They can adhere to existing law, and be allowed by both the
business people and their colleagues to gain mutual benefit.
Ideally, he said, business practitioners must proceed with
wisdom, fortitude, control, and fairness.
When one abandons these basic principles, he added, a
businessperson becomes prone to immoral economic conduct such as
collusion, corruption, and nepotism.