Corruption in Indonesia

     Corruption can mean many things for many people. In short, corruption means the practice of obtaining power, influence, or other personal gains through illegitimate means, often at others expense. The more widespread and acceptable corrupt methods are in a given society, the more corrupt that society is said to be. Corruption has resulted to crises in many parts of the world, and those on top have used it to take advantage of others. Corruption is an important development challenge that poses economic and social costs in Indonesia. Interference in public laws and policies for the sake of personal or private gain has weakened the competitiveness of Indonesia

     What causes corruption is? first, a clear opportunity, such as the envelope of cash sitting in the parking lot. This kind of opportunity in the government could be a government-run mining company with no competitors, or a long list of licenses and fees required for shipping goods into or out of the country. Second, Weak Governments: In corrupt societies, governments are unable or unwilling to stop corruption. They lack strong-willed or impartial anti-corruption agencies, and such agencies can easily be swallowed into corruption themselves. When such agencies are honest, their work is slow. In the worst cases, leaders staff anti-corruption agencies with their friends. The impotence of governments in the face of corruption is mimicked in the private sector. Corrupt business practices continue because executives are often the beneficiaries of those practices. A government which is weak cannot fight corruption because he will not in any way be propelled to take good action.  Third, what causes corruption is bad incentives, such as a clerk not earning enough to live on or not being sure that he will have a job tomorrow so that he supplements his income with bribes. In extreme cases, people do not have an incentive to perform their official duties, but actually pay for their jobs with the understanding they will make money through bribes. Fourth, Greed: Greediness is impossible to tabulate, but it is undoubtedly an important cause of corruption. Corruption continues to exist because the people with the most in a society are not content with what they have. They more they have, the more they want to acquire. In corrupt societies, politics is an avenue for greed as leaders use their positions to embezzle vast amounts of public funds meant for the public good.

     The effect of corruption has many dimensions, First and foremost, corruption leads to the depletion of national wealth. It is often responsible for increased costs of goods and services, the funneling of scarce public resources to uneconomic high profile projects at the expense of the much needed projects. In Social sphere, corruption discourages people to work together for the common good. Frustration and general apathy among the public result in a weak civil society. Demanding and paying bribes becomes the tradition. It also results in social inequality and widened gap between the rich and poor, civil strive, increased poverty and lack of basic needs like food, water and drugs, jealousy and hatred and insecurity. Corruption is said to have been factors for the down fall of past regimes byway of undermining the legitimacy of the governments and weakening their structures, reducing productivity, hindering development, worsening poverty, marginalizing the poor, creating social unrest and then to their downfall.

     Corruption can be reduced through the following solutions: Creating transparency and openness in government spending. Some countries do this in ways that are relatively transparent and make efforts to ensure that resources will be used in the public interest. The more open and transparent the process, the less opportunity it will provide for malfeasance and abuse. Collier (2007) provides persuasive evidence on the negative impact of ineffective systems of budget control. Countries where citizens are able to scrutinize government activities and debate the merits of various public policies also makes a difference. Anti-Corruption Bodies: The problem with some anti-corruption bodies is that many of them do not carry out their functions well. Many of them are too weak. Any country with strong anti-corruption body will win the war against corruption, and international cooperation can enhance domestic efforts. Surveillance: Electronic monitors, computer programs, and other technologies can monitor corruption in government and businesses. In corrupt countries, the use of technology can be preferable to relying on anti-corruption agencies staffed with friends of corrupt governments. The installation of these technologies should be done secretly, without the companies’ awareness, or in a way that makes them impossible to be tampered with.

     In many of the measures discussed above aimed at combating corruption, the underlying philosophy is one of eliminating the opportunity for corruption by changing incentives, by closing off loopholes and eliminating misconceived rules that encourage corrupt behavior. But an approach that focuses solely on changing the rules and the incentives, accompanied by appropriately harsh punishment for violation of the rules, is likely to be far more effective if it is also supported by efforts to buttress the moral and ethical foundation of human behavior. We will turn our attention to this in a future blog.