Lack of transparency leads to corruption

JAKARTA (JP): The lack of transparency in government policy making has caused top heavy corruption, a leading economist said yesterday.

Sjahrir of University of Indonesia told a seminar on bureaucracy that corruption prevailed thanks to policies which, despite their legitimacy, favored certain groups or people.

"The problem does not lie in whether we need an independent supervisory body, but in how transparent the process of policy making is so that it is open for debate," Sjahrir said.

He said policies should be logical so that people could question their feasibility.

"An opaque system enables various interest groups to intervene... A policy, for example, may be issued to win popular support in a general election," he said.

This opaque process could generate policies which clearly advantaged the elite under the guise of national interests, he said. This practice would eventually lead to rent seeking.

"We have a very long list detailing this kind of (policy making) pattern," he said.

Sjahrir said the rule of law and transparency should apply to build a clean government. He said that people in some countries preferred a clean and transparent bureaucracy to democracy.

"In a country which consistently embraces the rule of law, the government will see its policies obeyed by the people without question," he said.

Sjahrir was speaking on the second day of the seminar which featured Minister of Defense and Security Edi Sudradjat, economist Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, mass communications expert Astrid Susanto and sociologist Selo Sumardjan.

Polemics on corruption eradication resurfaced recently when legislator A.A. Baramuli suggested that an independent supervisory board be established besides the Supreme Audit Agency and the Development and Finance Control Board.

The Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. revealed in April that a survey of 280 executives concluded that Indonesia was the most corrupt country in Asia.

On Monday, Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudhohusodo suggested that high-ranking officials should voluntarily declare their wealth before assuming their jobs and then declare what they owned at the end of their tenures.

Minister of Administrative Reforms T.B. Silalahi agreed yesterday to Siswono's idea, although the government had already ruled that high-ranking officials were obliged to declare their wealth to prevent corruption.

Silalahi said it was impossible to eradicate corruption because it was common throughout the world, even in industrialized countries like the United States.

"It is clear that we cannot completely get rid of corruption," he said. "We can only minimize it. Corruption-free people live only in heaven." (amd)

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