T

he year 2012 will be very hot. The country, already affected by global warming, will be much hotter politically as we approach 2014.

At least three challenges will be faced by our country; corruption will still have top billing, followed by the Papua issue and then the political rivalry ahead of the 2014 election.

Big battles in three big corruption cases are imminent and likely will prey on other big victims (again): the re-opening of the Bank Century bailout case, the graft scandal in the dormitory project for the 2011 SEA Games in Palembang and vote-buying involving the selection of Bank Indonesia (BI) senior deputy governor Miranda S. Goeltom where the key suspect, Nunun Nurbaeti, has just been apprehended after months on the run.

The battles, for sure, will happen, and major political parties will gang up on the bruised Democratic Party while it in turn will fight back. Unfortunately, those who enter the battle will not be able to identify the enemies clearly because they will all be wearing the same uniform, even sitting down at the same table, chatting and enjoying dinner together. This is the most difficult battlefield.

They look like they are fighting corruption, but they are aiming at something else. That’s why, although there is a battle against corruption, the corruption has yet to be defeated. We have been fighting against corruption for years, and many corruptors have been sent to jail, but our Corruption Perception Index (CPI) does not move anywhere.

Previously, many people were optimistic that the root of corruption could be pulled out after chopping down the old generation, but these days we are astonished by the Financial Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) findings on large bank accounts belonging to dozens of young and low - ranking civil servants — allegedly as a result of corruption.

So, are we sure that everything we have done with such endeavor to fight corruption has been on the right track? Now the year 2011 is about to end, and we are still the same as yesterday, maybe even worse. Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Georgia president, might have been correct when he said that eradicating corruption is not enough to sustain a country.

The corruption in our country is systemic, so we need to fight it systemically, too. Don’t we see that it is important — apart from sending corruptors to jail — to start campaigning about moral values in schools, in homes, in offices, everywhere to blow away the decaying smells from our environment?

Ahead of entering 2012, this is time for us to have solitude, to contemplate how things are not working in our country.

Titus Jonathan
Serpong, Banten