Things change, but stay the same

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 03/22/2007 4:21 PM  |  Opinion

Patrick Guntensperger, Jakarta

According to the most recent Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) survey, Indonesia is no longer the most corrupt country in Southeast Asia. It is tied for second place with Thailand. Singapore however is slipping a bit; although still by far the least corrupt country in the region, the neighboring city-state has dropped a few points.

Does all this indicate that things are becoming more balanced, that Indonesia is moving closer to the world's successful, progressive countries and away from her predisposition towards rampant corruption? Is this cause for even muted celebration?

Far from it. A quick glance at the PERC survey shows that Indonesia moved up a notch in the ratings, not because of any significant reduction of corruption in Indonesia but rather as the result of backsliding on the part of Thailand.

As far as Singapore is concerned, its decline in the ratings can largely be attributed to the hundreds of fugitive corrupt Indonesians residing there and sitting on billions of dollars of money stolen from their fellow Indonesians. No, there is no cause for celebration here.

It is pretty much accepted that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's much vaunted ""war on corruption"" has stalled; that is, if one could honestly say that it ever really got started in the first place. It also seems to be an accepted truism that the war has stalled because the uphill battle was just too much for a president who is notoriously indecisive, overly concerned with being loved by everyone, and diffident in the face of opposition.

There is probably a great deal of truth in all of those observations, but it is perhaps more apt to suggest that the war has stalled because there never was any genuine commitment to change. We are constantly being told about the difficulty faced by the anti-corruption warriors in rooting out and proving cases of corruption against the ""big fish"".

We are beleaguered with tales about the complexity and sophistication of the hunt for the corruptors. While there may some truth to that at some level, ask any Indonesian or expat resident of Indonesia just how hard it is to find a corrupt public official.

To suggest that there is the slightest difficulty in finding corruption in Indonesia is either to demonstrate a dry, ironic humor, or quite simply to lie outright. Just by way of example, upon my return from a recent overseas trip, the first four Indonesian government officials I encountered openly solicited bribes.

Three were customs and immigration officers, each of whom employed a personalized approach ranging from the obsequious (I have a big family, be kind) to the threatening (back room at immigration). The third was a group of police officers who had set up their ambush in my neighborhood and were stopping everyone and subjecting all to a thorough shakedown. Business as usual.

Many people I have spoken to have told me that they have quite simply never encountered an Indonesian official who did his or her job honestly and without demanding a bribe. For myself, I can't say that...three years ago I dealt with a civil servant who was distracted for a moment as I walked away from the desk; he forgot to ask.

Rooting out corruption is not the problem. It's just that nobody can be bothered to do so.

Those in power, even minor bureaucratic power, certainly won't do anything about it...they make their livings off it. Their aspirations are not to live in a country that is clean and corruption-free; their shared ambition is to live in a profoundly corrupt country, but one in which they are getting a bigger share. And even those who are relatively clean won't do anything about it, because it is considered a more significant transgression to cause a fuss about corruption than it is be to be corrupt.

At the other extreme, the vast majority of the people, the poor victims of this institutionalized theft, are culturally conditioned to believe that the very thieves who take food from their children's mouths are their superiors and entitled to respect; objecting to their theft would be a show of disrespect.

The cultural predisposition is to have more contempt for someone who would show disrespect for a corrupt official than for the corrupt official. Even failing to smile and thank the thief for stealing from them is unthinkable to the truly well bred. There is, therefore, nobody who is likely to step up to the plate and tackle the issue.

Of course, that's why Indonesia needs a strong national leader with integrity and a desire to improve the lives of the long-suffering people of Indonesia. Of course, there was once a candidate who ran for the presidency claiming to be those things and campaigning on a platform of promises to do just that. Whatever happened to him?

The writer is a social commentator and political risk analyst who also lectures on business, media, and ethics. He writes frequently on political, environmental, and social issues and may be reached at pguntensperger@yahoo.ca.

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