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BPS index shows Indonesians' tolerance increasing for petty corruption
Two separate indexes indicate that the Indonesian public is becoming more lax in their attitude toward petty corruption, giving rise to concerns among experts that this may evolve into greater tolerance for major corruption.
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A Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) seal secures the office of General Elections Commission (KPU) member Wahyu Setiawan after KPK investigators finished their search on Jan. 9. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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ollsters and experts say that Indonesians are growing more permissive toward petty corruption and fear that this attitude could serve as motivation for committing an act of major corruption.
The trend is reflected in the latest corruption perception index from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), an annual index that describes Indonesians' level of tolerance toward practices that could lead to petty corruption.
This year's index has given a score of 3.68, a decline from 3.8 on last year’s index. The index uses a scale of zero to 5, with lower scores indicating high public tolerance for petty corruption, like charging illicit fees for public services. Higher scores indicate low public tolerance for petty corruption.
The 2020 index interviewed a randomized sample of 1,200 respondents aged 18 and above from March 2 to May 17.
BPS head Suhariyanto attributed this year's lower score to several factors. These included 14.21 percent of respondents who said they would tolerate family members taking the belongings of other family members without permission, more than double the 5.15 percent of respondents who responded similarly in last year's index.
Meanwhile, 32.74 percent of respondents said it was permissible for people to receive money, gifts and other facilities from legislative or regional electoral candidates, compared to 20.89 percent of respondents in the 2019 index.
“Not to mention that more respondents also said it was 'normal' to pay extra money to police and public officials or middlemen to expedite the process for obtaining a driver's license, vehicle registration certificate, [personal] identity card or family identity card,” Suhariyanto said on Monday.
