TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Iron-walled bureaucracy confronts graft busters
Antigraft activists are forced to resort to sleuth-like tactics to penetrate tight-lipped government institutions to collect valuable data on corrupt practices
Change Size
A
ntigraft activists are forced to resort to sleuth-like tactics to penetrate tight-lipped government institutions to collect valuable data on corrupt practices.
Agus Sunaryanto of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said activists had to play a cat-and-mouse game with government officials when they were barred from accessing critical data. "Of course we can't ask openly," he said, adding that activists got around the issue by going undercover.
"Activists with the right look pose as someone else," he told The Jakarta Post recently.
He added that activists went undercover not only when meeting officials, but also certain people. For example, an activist had to act as a businessman when he tried to verify the price of certain medical equipment at a shop.
"If we admit that we're from the ICW, people won't give us information because they're afraid that something might happen to them," he said. "Indonesians in general still fear being questioned by law enforcement officers even when they haven't done anything wrong."
The undercover method is not without its risks, especially when the true identity of the activists is revealed.
Thus, ICW's operating procedures stipulate that activists operate, and when possible, travel in pairs to minimize the chance of being attacked or "showered with money" by certain parties, Agus said.
"At least there is a witness if one gets attacked," he said. "Being cautious has become our way of life for our colleagues and our families."
Four unidentified men attacked ICW activist Tama S. Langkun on July 8, allegedly for his role in uncovering suspiciously large bank accounts belonging to high ranking police officers. The police have not announced the identities of the perpetrators.
In addition to undercover work, activists rely on government insiders or whistle-blowers to help them access data.
"Some are companies that lost a procurement tender and felt they had been cheated," he said. "However, they are only *momentary allies' until they enter the next tender."
Roy Salam, an activist at Indonesia Budget Center, said whistle-blowers were concerned about the rampant budgetary corruption within their institution.
"These people share our spirit in pushing for transparency in their institutions," he said, adding that some of them people were willing to help since they were not directly related to the questionable division.
Not being directly associated with the suspected division minimizes the whistle-blowers' risk as well, he told the Post. "If they can't obtain the data, they will help us get in touch with contacts who can," he added.
He said the difficulties anticorruption activists faced in data collection from a majority of government institutions showed the government's lack of political will in implementing the freedom of information law.
The 2008 Freedom of Information Law stipulates that government institutions provide information to the public - except those dealing with defense and security issues, business deals and diplomatic negotiations - to promote transparency and good governance.
The continued lack of transparency showed that corruption still existed at every "level of government", Agus added. "If they are clean, why do they act bothered or scared? The public must continue pushing the government for their right to obtain information so that the government takes seriously the need to open up." (gzl)
