Anticorruption education is based on the belief that it is an essential part of the eradication of corruption. Law enforcement as a curative process should be conducted in parallel with preventive and preservative actions.

Preventive efforts are intended to prevent the internalization of permissiveness toward corrupt acts, while preservative efforts are there to provide protection and resistance skills for individuals or social elements that have absorbed anti-corruption values. The program is expected to open a menu of revisions for curriculum discourse in this country.

Changing the curriculum should be linked to demands for more emphasis on strengthening the power of reason and analysis, ideally promoting values of honesty, solidarity and tolerance. These values are now increasingly undermined by corrupt behavior, consumerism and permissiveness toward acts of corruption.

Currently, the three main threats to this nation are inter-religious conflict, poverty and environmental damage. These threats are correlated to the corrupt behavior of the nation’s elite.

There are findings showing that in this reformation era a more equitable distribution of corruption has occurred at all levels of the government bureaucracy.

To overcome corruption requires detailed legal devices. Without these, opportunities remain wide open to legal interpretations, in turn, increasing temptations, for example to apply charges to the public for anything.

However, at the same time, more and more rules could mean more power for the bureaucracy, and thus more opportunities for extortion.

The closer the social relations of a society, the more difficult it is to prove corruption. An official who gives a project to an entrepreneur with a particular reward could be snared by allegations of corruption.

However, it would be difficult to prove if the reward for his services was obtained in the form of donations, gifts or a job for their child.  Because of that, there are provisions in Malaysia whereby government officials are prohibited from accepting any gifts from the community, especially from employers.

The reformation of bureaucratic structures should eliminate loopholes for corrupt practices related
to several mechanisms such as in the implementation of government regulations; overseeing project tenders; promotions and new recruitment; the tax bill; allocations of subsidized credit; and the determination of exchange rates. This list could go on.

In fighting corruption, the government’s political will is imperative. However, we must remain aware that this is not something that comes about easily or instantly. Thus any efforts, including those initiated by universities, need to be supported by all those who want this nation to get back its noble dignity.


The writer is the co-editor-in-chief of the Indonesian and Asian Journal of Social Democracy.

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