No link between education, corruption: KPK

Marzuki Alie: House of Representatives Speaker. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has rejected the existence of a correlation between educated people and those involved in corruption following a controversial statement by House Speaker Marzuki Alie.

On Monday, at an event titled “The Future of Higher Education in Indonesia”, Marzuki said most corrupt people came from well-known universities like University of Indonesia (UI) and Gadjah Mada University (UGM), which offended alumni.

“Corrupt people are smart people. They could be members of the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Associations (ICMI), Islamic Student Association (HMI), or alumni from UI or UGM. None of them are stupid,” he said.

KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas begged to differ. “Corruption is caused by bad morale or vision of leaders and a hedonic political culture that thrives in the elites,” he said Thursday. “It’s not from the universities.”

Muqoddas said corruption would continue to grow if these problems were made worse by a lack of scrutiny from civilians.