Indonesia world's no. 5 most corrupt nation: TI
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia remains one of the world's most corrupt nations, despite the current reform era that began after the 1998 fall of president Soeharto, indicates a report from the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) Indonesia.
TI announced on Wednesday that Indonesia was ranked the fifth most corrupt nation along with Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Georgia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, who received the same score as Indonesia among 146 countries surveyed.
Among the ASEAN-member countries, Indonesia is ranked above Myanmar based on TI's global corruption index. Last year, the international graft watchdog put Indonesia No. 6 in its index.
In a press release, TI said that based on the index of 146 countries perceived by business leaders, academics, antigraft activists and risk analysts across Indonesia, the country's score was only 2.0, an increase from 1.9 last year.
Although Indonesia's index increased or rather improved by 0.1, Its ranking dropped because other countries managed to improve their performance, it added.
Indonesia's index has moved between 1.7 and 2.0 since 1999, indicating that the current reform movement had failed to significantly reduce the public perception of corruption in the country.
The watchdog said systemic corruption was the biggest challenge for the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was sworn in on Wednesday, to tackle, as he was directly elected by the people for his pledge to fight graft.
Many have said his predecessor, Megawati Soekarnoputri, failed to be reelected in the Sept. 20 election for being not serious in eradicating corruption.
In his inaugural speech hours after taking his oath of office, Susilo renewed his pledge that he would lead the antigraft drive by his government to show his commitment to eradicate corruption.
TI said factors contributing to the index included a report from the State Audit Agency (BPK) which revealed Rp 166.5 trillion in extensive irregularities in the use of state funds from 1999 to 2004.
Quoting the BPK report, the graft watchdog said losses through corruption amounted to some Rp 37.39 trillion in the first semester of 2004 alone.
Ironically, the Attorney General's Office, which is mandated to prosecute corrupters, failed to boost its performance, while the BPK report showed the office as having the largest amount in fund irregularities.
TI said the BPK report only reflected the suspected embezzlement of funds from state budgets and excluded other graft cases, such as project markups and bribery among government officials.
Based on its interviews with businesspeople in 15 cities across Indonesia, the watchdog concluded that bribery and other unauthorized fees were widespread between businesspeople and state officials in order to obtain business permits and during court trials.
TI urged President Susilo to fulfill his promises by pursuing his antigraft programs consistently, as the nation has already pinned high hopes on him to eradicate corruption.
The organization said Susilo should adopt anticorruption programs submitted to him by various non-governmental organizations, including the Indonesian Corruption Watch.