Presidential frontrunner Joko âJokowiâ Widodo and running mate Jusuf Kalla have pledged their commitment to fighting corruption, despite the absence of an anti-graft program in their newly launched nine-point priorities
residential frontrunner Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and running mate Jusuf Kalla have pledged their commitment to fighting corruption, despite the absence of an anti-graft program in their newly launched nine-point priorities.
The 'Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla real program' was launched during a campaign stop on Thursday in West Java's capital city of Bandung.
The programs cover civil service reform, land ownership, village empowerment, subsidies for poor families, education subsidies and health insurance coverage, as well as development priorities for agriculture, fishery and small businesses.
However, the programs exclude any emphasis of the need to combat graft in Indonesia, said to be one of the world's most corrupt countries.
'If it's not there, it doesn't mean that it's not important,' Jokowi said late on Thursday.
Jokowi-Kalla campaign team spokesperson Teten Masduki explained that the absence of such a program was mainly due to practical reasons.
'Nine is a good number. We squeezed the agenda into nine points since it is only the highlights of our programs,' he said.
Teten, an anti graft activist turned politician, also said the fight against corruption could be embodied in a different form.
'It [corruption eradication] is a huge concept and can be implemented anywhere, including in the energy, economic and food sectors,' he said.
Transparency International's 2013 Corruption Perception Index put Indonesia in 114th place out of 177 countries surveyed with a score of only 32 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
The low score was due to weak law enforcement, rampant abuse of authority, as well as red tape.
A 2013 survey by Transparency International Indonesia also named the National Police, the House of Representatives and the judiciary as the three most-corrupt public institutions in the country.
Emerson Yuntho of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said he could understand why Jokowi and Kalla had decided not to mention an anti graft program in their recently launched working agenda.
'It seems like they wanted to highlight welfare issues, so they dropped off other issues, like anti-graft and pluralism, for practical reasons,' he said.
He explained that the pair had actually elaborated on their anti-corruption measures in their 42-page vision and mission document, submitted to the General Elections Commission (KPU) when they registered their candidacy
in May.
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