Responses to graft survey show depth of problem

Responses to graft survey show depth of problem

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Last week, Transparency International Indonesia (TII),
announced the findings of a survey it conducted on corruption in
the country. Todung Mulya Lubis, a member of TII's board of
directors, discussed these with The Jakarta Post's Tony Hotland.

Question: The Transparency International Indonesia (TII)
survey has produced indifferent responses from those whose names
or institutions appeared on the roll of shame. How do you see
this?

Answer: Frankly, I'm very confused why these government
officials are so easily offended. The TII survey shows the
business community's perceptions of corrupt areas in Indonesia.
The results show that Jakarta is perceived as the most corrupt
city in this country. I am aware that this finding makes a lot of
sense as Jakarta and other areas perceived as corrupt like Medan
and Surabaya are centers of industry and trade. But that is no
excuse for taking the survey's findings for granted.

The survey should serve as a reference for these
administrations in increasing internal reform with a view to
creating clean governance. Their responses, however, have been
negative instead of taking on board the main point, which is that
the business community still sees corruption as a systemic,
endemic and widespread practice here despite much-hyped
anticorruption campaigns by the government. Their responses are
definitely not in line with the commitment of the new government
to eradicating corruption and accepting criticism and input
graciously. This survey confirms the Transparency International
annual survey, which places Indonesia as the fifth most corrupt
country in the world. We are making efforts to revive and bring
in new investment here, but if this kind of survey is responded
to in this way, the omens are not promising for progress.

The survey shows that bribery is also partly due to the
willingness of those in the business community to offer bribes to
government officials. Do you see the current situation as a
double-edged sword?

It is sad to see that the respondents, 90 percent of which are
local businesspeople, have an ambivalent stance about corrupt
practices such as bribery. On one hand they support good
governance, but on the other hand many of them voluntarily offer
bribes, whether simply to show gratitude or to win contracts.
Those who do so are likely those with smaller businesses who feel
that they have to offer bribes so as to be able to compete with
the big boys. Not a few businesspeople also include bribe money
as part of their costs as they feel that bribes will be necessary
and they will have to compromise even though they know it is the
wrong thing to do.

Given the rotten system we have here, it is up to the business
community to show more support for clean governance by refusing
to offer and pay bribes, and demonstrating zero tolerance for
corruption in any form. It is part of their responsibilities to
create clean governance. One simple instance, they must pay their
taxes honestly instead of "playing dirty" with officials to evade
tax. It's their obligation.
How about the governance system here? You specifically quoted
a respondent as saying that "the system is such that you cannot
avoid corruption".

It is indeed a very dangerous kind of apathy that perhaps many
people, including those in business, have in their heads about
our administration system. That's why the government has launched a
major anticorruption campaign to reform the institutions and the
personnel, and should stick to it come what may. The legislation
and regulations mandating a transparent and accountable system
are already in place, so it's just a matter of implementation and
political will.

Given these kinds of perception about our system, over half of
the respondents are content to rely on the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK) to solve this deeply-rooted problem. It is the
legal institutions, like the judiciary and public prosecution
service, that need to be reformed instead of simply increasing
the salaries of civil servants. Having a high salary does not
automatically mean you will refuse a bribe.

What is TII doing to help reform the system?

We have a number of programs to put accountable and
transparent systems in place in the regions. We've been assisting
the Tanah Datar administration in running their administration.
They signed what we call an Integrity Pact. For example, we're
assisting them in implementing legislation in an accountable
manner, like the presidential regulation on public procurement,
and then we adapt the system to local conditions and the
available resources. The regent of Tangerang has also called me
to help them with the implementation of the same pact. We dream
of creating islands of integrity that stand tall amid a sea of
corruption.

Next year, we also expect to survey more areas, perhaps up to
40 compared to the 21 cities/regencies currently surveyed. And we
also plan to conduct surveys on other aspects of corruption other
than the bribery index and service satisfaction index.