O

nce upon a time, there was a furniture merchant in a city in Central Java. He was a humble and determined businessman who didn'€™t bow to pressure or adversity.

His business grew larger as the result of his grit. He started to gain foreign connections, often traveling abroad to strike business deals or pay courtesy visits. As a small town boy, he was impressed with the cultured, orderly European cities.

Later, when he won election in his home town and became the mayor, he was inspired to make his city become as cultured and developed as those that he had seen during his trips.

He went around and talked to people to help solve their problems.

The story was frequently told only five years ago; yet it seems distant. Mayor Joko'€™s virtues won so many hearts that now, having become the country'€™s President, not only does he get to see more citizens in his city, Surakarta, but also in his country.

He has visited more places around the world, no longer to promote his little business, but to promote his vast, resource-rich country.

Try as he might, it turns out that it is not so easy to solve the people'€™s problems in many regions, or to get foreign investors to open businesses in the country '€” for one obvious reason: not all regional heads and government officials are as virtuous as Mayor Joko.

Many regional heads made more fortunes than him from their resource-rich jurisdictions.

They frequently traveled abroad, only to come home and build their own palaces, buy luxury cars and leave their people in poverty. No inspiration did they bring home as souvenirs from the overseas trips.

Instead, the luxury items, like the most expensive perfumes, make them appear like gods or goddesses in their regions, a stark contrast to the earthly existence of their neighbors.

Some were later targeted by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the beacon of the country'€™s fight against corruption that works amid other low-performing law enforcement bodies.

In their beautiful dresses, they attend interrogations and trials, flash nervous smiles and pay the consequences of their own poor judgements.

When President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, the old mayor Joko, regularly meets and discusses the regions'€™ problems with local leaders, they point out that corruption is the main obstacle of the development programs in their regions.

Committed to bring progress to the regions, the President recently ordered the legal guardians to relax vigilance on regional budget disbursement, to give more room for the local leaders to accelerate their development projects.

The lingering question is, can they?
If there are still many regional heads who think that they are small kings and queens solely entitled to their regions'€™ natural resources, loosening the watch on corruption will only entertain their greed.

It is true that corrupt practices are getting fewer. The KPK recorded that they only prosecuted 54 suspects last year, fewer than in 2010 when it investigated 65 cases.

But is it time to relax the fight against corruption? Certainly not. Poor law enforcement will only lay a negative sentiment for foreign investors who seek legal certainty before delivering money.

At the beginning of this year, President Jokowi announced that he will apply budget politics, in which he said he will eliminate the Special Allocation Fund (DAK) and trim the General Allocation Fund (DAU), for regions with low budget disbursement.

It is nearing year-end and the regional heads surely worry about the President'€™s budget control policy and, hence, have pleaded for law enforcement bodies to relax budget oversight.

The government should look at the records of the regional heads to see what they have done in the past eight months. Do they still frequently travel outside their regions? Have they produced great deals during the travels? Or are they getting new cars and houses?

Regions experienced a boom during a commodity bonanza several years ago, when the country'€™s natural gas, palm oil and coal and other mining products responded to strong global demand and traded at good prices.

But some areas until now, such as the central mining region of South Kalimantan, are still deprived of electricity and clean water.

With the current economic slowdown, it is true that it has not become easier to do business, but it doesn'€™t mean that everybody should lie back and take a vacation instead.