The Destroyer of Democracy
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The enemies of democracy we are facing are actually not foreign parties that deliberately damage, undermine and then knock down democracy. They are none other than members of this nation’s family who have the heart to eat the carcass of their own relatives: the corrupt people. They are the vandals of the democratic joints who can destroy and sink the Republic of Indonesia, not other people.
Ironically, the corrupt people are those who are ignorant to the foul ways pursued by their predecessors. More precisely, they do not take a lesson from the lives of the corrupt people who came before them. As a result, the story of corruption in this country tends to be repetitive, copy-paste and not creative.
Corruption recycle
In this country corruption almost always take the same form, pattern and mode: political corruption. Compared with conventional corruption, political corruption is carried out mostly in the public service sector. In this context, the electronic identity card (e-KTP) corruption case, which has caused the state to suffer Rp 2.3 trillion in losses, constitutes an example of corruption in the service section in question. In its Global Corruption Report in 2004, Transparency International defines political corruption as the abuse of entrusted power by political leaders for private gain.
In a democratic regime, corruption frequently takes place because the "transcript of democracy" has been betrayed, namely when the principles of democracy such as accountability and public transparency have been castrated (Philp, 1997: 438).
In Indonesia, political corruption has plagued all state institutions: executive, legislative and judicial. In conducting the corruption crimes, the corrupt people almost always do them in "congregation". Of all existing state institutions, only the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is sterile and serves as the last hope for the nation to block corruption.
Therefore, corruption in the democratic era cannot be carried out by people as individuals, private, or separated from the context of politics-power. The people even more frequently become victims or casualties from the chain of cyclical "congregation" corruption crimes. Why? Because political corruption will surely erode and degrade the quality of public services, which should have been received by the public in the form of education, health, public infrastructure, and the like. Thus political corruption is not possible outside the existing economy-politics structure.
In this context, understanding the behavior of corruption among the political elite circle in the Darwinian perspective becomes imperative. Consequently, a member of the political elite, no matter how clean he or she is, will inevitably take part in corruption because of the coercive encouragement in a chain to meet the demand for the corrupt political structure.
To a certain degree, a corrupt act can serve as a strategy of self-defense to face political contestation and competition. In other words, the corrupt people are "political survivors" who can be understood in their context as part of a big corrupt system or structure.
In the democratic era, the pattern and mode of corruption should be more sophisticated, subtle and complex. In reality, the corrupt people in this country do not want to learn from history so they replicate the corruption techniques of their predecessors. As a result, the mode of stealing the state budget is almost always repeated. They always act on any major nationwide project. The projects always breeds new faces of corrupt people at a later date. The technique is nearly the same: inflating the budget, fictitious procurement, to the trade of laws.
I am sure the corrupt people do not fully realize the effects and bad impacts of their behavior. They surely know that the path they take can lead them and this country to the brink of collapse. However, the power of systemic corruption structure has already controlled and crippled the clean capacity of individuals. Therefore, the capacity of corrupt people has no power in front of the great power structure that dwarfs them. The conscience becomes blind, the mind becomes dull. The desire for clean life is defeated by the "congregation" corruption solidarity.
Creating democracy with dignity
In the context of a relation between democracy and corruption, there is no scientist who necessitates the absence of a relation between the two. The two negate each other. Corruption is an antithesis of democracy. Corruption can undermine and destroy the democratic regime (see Warren, 2004; Johnston, 2005; Rock, 2009).
What needs to be underlined is that corruption in all state institutions constitutes a double crime. Major corruption cases that have thus far been uncovered should have awakened all elements of the nation, especially the political elite, to be able to identify and keep an eye on how the traps and snares of corruption work.
Creating democracy in an in optima forma logic constitutes the only key word that can save this nation from destruction because of corruption. However, do not be mistaken, by creating democracy with dignity, we do not idolize democracy. Why? Because democracy is not the goal, but a means to reach the goal. What is meant by the expression is: Only by creating democracy with dignity will we enable all elements of the nation, especially the people as the only sole stakeholder of this republic, to have dignity.
Deconstructing the political culture of this nation to a political culture that is clean, transparent and accountable is a necessity if we are to create democracy with dignity. The problem is, how can we build a political culture in the middle of a siege of a corrupt economic-political structure? That is the first challenge before building a political culture that is clean, transparent and accountable.
The efforts to create democracy with dignity, therefore, necessitate two steps at once: Top-down and bottom-up. At the top level, it is time for the elite and political parties to pioneer lifestyles that are clean, transparent and accountable. They should no longer see the reality of state budget, which is channeled through the ministries, as sources for political activity funding because the looting of the state budget, which is happening today will certainly -- once again, definitely! -- be uncovered in a later date.
Meanwhile, at the grassroots level, the people should not be taught to accept political money, especially ahead of general election or regional elections.
On the other side, people have to be critical of contributions from the political elite in any form because in the end, the elite have to search for the compensation from the sources of the state budget. Political money received by the people is actually a down payment that can delay and mortgage their own welfare. Only through the two ways will democracy be able to glorify their master: all of us. Hopefully.
MASDAR HILMY
Professor of Social Sciences and Deputy Director of Post-Graduate Program of Sunan Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya
