I

t is just a basic instinct that parents will protect their children, even when they have grown up and left home. Sociologists have found the protection mechanism even extends to relatives.

Blood is thicker than water, as the old saying goes. Especially in Indonesia, where the values of kinship are well preserved and can be seen, alive and kicking, in urban areas like Jakarta.

And in the same vein bloodlines count in politics regardless of the damage done.

The controversial decision of Riau Governor Annas Maamun to appoint his son-in-law as the head of the provincial Education Agency and his son as the head of the road and bridge department at the provincial Public Works Agency speaks volumes about the practice of nepotism, which has been left unaddressed.

Annas could justify his move given that nepotism is common at the national and local levels. The recent legislative election will almost certainly catapult sons, daughters, wives, in-laws and relatives of party leaders to legislative seats without them having to progress through the party'€™s hierarchy, at the expense of candidates with merit that were deemed '€œnobodies'€.

Nepotism is as equally dangerous and devastating to democracy as corruption, which is why at the start of reformasi, back in 1998, the two were declared the chief enemies of the nation along with collusion. Until today People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Decree No. 11/1998 on corruption, collusion and nepotism eradication stands, but with the MPR only playing a symbolic role nobody cares about the decree when it comes to the fight against nepotism.

The decree was inspired by the burgeoning business empires of the children and relatives of president Soeharto, who once admitted he could not prevent them from '€œmaking a living'€ through business. But who dared at that time to not give the first family facilities and favors? One of the Soeharto children was even awarded a monopoly to control clove trade in the country, although later on it was scrapped.

The fight against corruption picked up steam as soon as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was formed in 2003. The fearless KPK has arrested legislators, ministers, governors, regents and other public officials and brought them to justice, although the bold antigraft campaign has not significantly improved the Corruption Perception Index.

Nepotism is a battlefield the nation has forgotten amid intensifying corruption eradication efforts, perhaps by design because it would do more harm to the elites. The conflict of interest facing our policymakers may be why Indonesia is reluctant to pass regulations, let alone a law, to rein in nepotism.

After Soeharto, the case of suspended Banten governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah is the most blatant example of how nepotism leads to corruption. The governor and her family live lavishly, as seen in the latest revelation that 26 luxury cars were given to her two children, while poverty is plaguing her province.

We cannot afford to let this continue any longer.