Indonesia's cancer of corruption

Indonesia's cancer of corruption

Respected figures such as Indonesian Corruption Watch's Teten
Masduki and Australian Newcastle University's George J.
Aditjondro would have us believe that, while the focus has
shifted from the Functional Group (Golkar) and the Soeharto-
entourage to multifarious political parties, corruption is as
rampant as ever. The cause of this, they say, is the government's
failure to clamp down effectively on political and bureaucratic
graft. This, very lamentingly, rings all too true if one
considers that while angry crowds immolate petty thieves in the
streets, big-time white collar crooks are still managing to
escape punishment by frustrating law enforcement at prosecution,
conviction or imprisonment levels through the use of bribery.

Clearly, the consequences of endemic corruption for the
nation, despite the ongoing financial and political crisis, have
not yet been appreciated. What a tragedy it would be if the
incipient break up of Indonesia and the present economic turmoil
were blamed on scapegoats such as the newly empowered student and
worker organizations and the secessionist movements in places
like Aceh and Western Papua. That tragedy would be even greater
if, as a result of such simplistic thinking, the Army were to be
asked by some emerging opportunistically autocratic leader to use
heavy-handed tactics to restore stability and the integrity of
this nation. The point will have been missed for perhaps a
further three decades, until yet another crisis caused by
corruption, again rears its ugly head to proffer democracy
another, perhaps, ephemeral chance at governance.

The point is that, even in the absence of proper laws and
legal procedures to help eradicate corruption, all Indonesians
have the moral responsibility to fight corrupt practices. The
reason is a pragmatic one. How can the people of Aceh and Western
Papua have faith that an Indonesian government will respect and
deal fairly with their interests, knowing that the presence of
rife corruption will result in arbitrary decisions being made to
further personal interests rather than their own? How can the
people of this country come to believe that creativity and
industry, rather than criminal practices, will bring them
improved welfare? How can factions in society (especially in such
places as Central Kalimantan, Maluku and Sulawesi) be persuaded
to accept that the peaceful resolution of disputes through the
use of state apparatus is the correct way to settle conflict,
when evidence abounds that corrupt money determines the final
outcomes?

Corruption is a cancer that also diverts the nation's
resources away from properly benefiting the nation as a whole.
When a bureaucrat or politician is bribed to ensure the nation's
money is used to pay an incompetent or less-than-efficient
contractor to undertake a project that not really needed or could
have been completed more cheaply and efficiently by another
party, national resources are being abused. Even where government
money is not involved, private projects that are given the go-
ahead by a corrupt official who circumvents the normal procedures
that provide for public consultancy and accountability, are also
diverting resources in a way that ensures private interests
rather than the interests of the nation prevail. This misuse of
resources ultimately will result in Indonesia becoming less
competitive on the world stage and, as has been seen over the
past three years, will have a great financial impact on the poor
majority than the elite who brought about the misuse of resources
in the first place.

FRANK RICHARDSON

Jakarta