Asia Times: Indonesia turns up heat on corruption


	October 30, 2001	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Indonesia turns up heat on corruption
By Ken Ntalarana

JAKARTA - The Indonesian House of Representatives is expected to pass soon an anti-corruption bill. It will, among other things, shift the burden of proof so that suspects being held on corruption charges will be presumed guilty until they prove otherwise.

The bill will also allow civil courts to reopen closed corruption cases tried in criminal courts if new evidence shows that wealth accrued by "corrupters" came from corruption. If the allegations are proved true, the civil court will be authorized to confiscate the wealth.

Such laws are long overdue in a country that after Vietnam is rated as the most corrupt country in Asia, according to the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC).

According to the results of a survey released last week by Indonesia's Partnership for Governance Reform, a multi-stakeholder non-governmental organization financed partly by the World Bank, 65 percent of 2,300 respondents have in one way or another made undue payments to government officials.

The survey also reveals that the traffic police, customs authorities and the judiciary are the most corrupt institutions in Indonesia, which were also perceived to be the least efficient in terms of delivery of public services, indicating a positive relationship between integrity and performance.

There is not doubt that most Indonesians reject corruption, yet they "become drawn into it due to a sense of powerlessness and a lack of experience in engaging a corrective action to effect change," said the survey. "This can be further underscored through the low reporting of corruption cases and the reasons for not reporting corruption cases," it continued.

Approximately 40 percent of the respondents reported observing a case of corruption, but less than 10 percent of the cases were reported to related authorities, and the reasons for not reporting corruption cases include a lack of confidence in the existing system, fear and procedural difficulties.

Corruption practices also discourage business investment in Indonesia. According to the survey, approximately 35 percent of business enterprises decide not to invest in the crisis-stricken country due to the high cost related to corruption.

The price of corruption on business is so high that more than half of business respondents (56 percent of 400) of the survey said they would be willing to pay additional taxes if corruption could be eliminated, and of those willing to do so, more than half were willing to pay more than 5 percent of company revenues toward eliminating unofficial payments.

"Corruption extracts a high cost from society with approximately 1 percent of household income and 5 percent of companies spent on unofficial payments monthly," according to the report, with higher income households proportionately paying more in bribes than lower income households.

Clearly, the government has to engage the people at large if it wants its campaigns against corruption, collusion and nepotism to succeed since the people are inherently intertwined with corrupt practices.

While prosecuting big time corrupters, who are mostly family members and cronies of former strongman Suharto, it is as important to educate the public on their rights as citizens and users of public services as being equally important in putting an end to graft and corruption.

However, educating people of their rights constitutes the most important but hardest component in fighting corruption because it involves value change and empowerment of people.

Despite the expected enactment of the anti-corruption bill, doubt persists if President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who replaced Abdurrahman Wahid after members of the People's Consultative Assembly impeached him last July, has the political will to go after big time corrupters, some of whom are leaders of her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan).

Thus, corruption allegations against House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who is also chairman of the Golkar party, which threw its support behind Megawati's bid for the presidential post in July, will serve as litmus test for her determination to wipe out corruption.

Tandjung is accused of taking 40 billion rupiah (US$4 million) from the State Logistics Bureau (BULOG) for his party prior to the 1999 general elections, an allegation that could see his party dissolved if it is proved to be true.

Indonesia prepares black sheep for sacrifice

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