RI still on list of most corrupt

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the country's efforts to combat corruption, Indonesia remains one of the world's corrupt nations according to the latest annual report from the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI).

TI Indonesia announced on Tuesday that the country was among the six most corrupt nations, along with Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iraq, Liberia and Uzbekistan, out of 159 countries surveyed.

Based on the perceptions of business leaders, academics, antigraft activists and risk analysts across Indonesia, the country's score was only 2.2 out of 10, with 10 being the least corrupt nation.

This represents a slight improvement on last year's score of 2.0.

"However, the improvement was due to the fact that other countries managed to improve their performances. There has also been an increase in the number of countries surveyed, from 146 last year to 159 this year," said TI Indonesia executive and human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis.

Among Southeast Asian nations, Indonesia is only better than Myanmar (1.8). Even the scores of countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos are higher, with 2.3, 2.6 and 3.3 respectively.

Singapore is flying high at 9.4, making it the fifth least corrupt country, while Malaysia ranks 39th with a score of 5.1.

Based on 13 surveys carried out across the country, Indonesia's score since 1999 has ranged between 1.7 and 2.2, which means that the so-called reform era has failed to do much to eradicate corruption in the country.

Despite the work of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), corruption is still rampant, even within the judicial system, with the most recent case involving the alleged bribery of Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan and other justices of the country's highest court.

Todung urged Bagir to temporarily step aside until the case was investigated to avoid any obstruction of justice.

"If we manage to eliminate the 'judicial mafia', there would at least be some hope of us improving on our corruption perception index score. At least between 2.5 and 3.0 next year," he said.

Economist Faisal Basri said that if the country wanted to improve its TI corruption index score, then it should start by focusing on straightening out the sort of corrupt business practices that had been hampering foreign investment.

"This index is part of an effort to ease business between countries. Therefore, we should create a more investor-friendly atmosphere. The business climate must be overhauled," Faisal told the discussion following TI Indonesia's announcement.

According to The World Economic Forum (WEF), Indonesia is not a good country to do business in as even to obtain a business permit takes 151 days, while illegal fees, bribery and corruption are all rampant.

Therefore, Faisal said, it would take hard work to clean up areas related to business, permits and the legal system.

However, the country needed to move beyond creating a good atmosphere for foreign investors.

"Although that would be beneficial for many people. But we have to design a corruption eradication strategy that favors the Indonesian population as a whole, to make the people more prosperous."