Rating on RI's corruption draws mixed reactions

Rating on RI's corruption draws mixed reactions

JAKARTA (JP): The recent survey by Hong Kong-based Political
and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd (PERC), which rated Indonesia
as the most corrupt country in Asia, has drawn mixed reactions.

Commentators like legislator of the dominant Golkar grouping
Theo L. Sambuaga rejected the rating, saying the agency only
means to discredit Indonesia.

Other commentators like economist Didik J. Rachbini from the
Institute for Development of Economics and Finance and noted
sociologist Arief Budiman question the criteria used by the firm
to judge Indonesia as the most corrupt country in Asia. But they
accepted that corruption in the country has reached an acute
level.

"There is nothing new in the report," said Arief.

Theo said yesterday the criteria as well as the consultancy
firm's motives were questionable. He suspected the firm made the
judgment with certain business interests.

"The report does not detail how the survey was made. Thus, the
basis for the assessment is unclear. This shows that PERC, like
many research agencies which have lately thrived, exists only for
certain business interests," Theo was quoted by Antara as saying.

The agencies, he said, discredited countries with big business
potential like Indonesia to scare away investors.

"We need not feel perturbed by the report since its basis is
unclear. But we really regret the statement," Theo said.

The report did not give a time frame for the survey, but 280
executives were surveyed and asked to grade each country on a
scale of zero to 10, with zero being the best grade and 10 the
worst.

Indonesia had the worst score of more than 8, followed by
India, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines,
Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

"A series of high profile cases highlighted the extent to
which politically influential individuals were able to arrange
matters to their own benefit. Growing nepotism ... was thus
probably equated with corruption," the report said.

The survey did not include any other countries on the Indian
subcontinent, including Pakistan which was rated last year by a
Berlin-based rating agency as the world's second most corrupt
place to do business after Nigeria.

Didik and Arief told The Jakarta Post PERC's report was not
new since many surveys in the past had pointed out the acuteness
of corruption in the country.

However, both doubted the conclusion that Indonesia was the
most corrupt country in Asia since countries like Bangladesh and
Vietnam, they said, were also notoriously corrupt.

"In the Southeast Asian countries, we are certainly the worst.
Corruption in the Philippines is also high but the country is
still better than us in the sense that its media can exercise
control," said Arief.

Didik said corruption in Indonesia had become an acute disease
that took a long time to heal.

"We have had an anticorruption law since the 1970s. But it is
a toothless tiger," he said.

Didik said the government needed to take multiple approaches
in campaigning against corruption. The approaches include
debureaucratization, deregulation, forming cleaner government and
democratization.

Arief said the free press had a role as the main antidote
against corruption.

A sociologist from the University of Indonesia, Paulus
Wirotomo, said the report, however doubtful its method and
criteria, would adversely affect Indonesia's image
internationally. As such, if the government thought it was wrong,
it needed to make a counter report which also had an
international impact. (jsk)

Editorial -- Page 4