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.