Pakpak Bharat Regent Remigo Yolando Berutu (center) is escorted by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) officials as he arrives on Nov. 18 at the KPK’s Jakarta headquarters. The KPK has detained the Democratic Party politician after he was caught during a sting operation in a bribery case involving the Pakpak Bharat Public Works and Housing Agency in North Sumatra.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has released the 2017 Integrity Assessment Index (SPI). The survey results reinforce the fact that corruption is the most formidable problem facing this nation.
The survey results confirm the views of proclamator Mohammad Hatta, who once said that corruption had become a daily practice. The KPK’s findings as reported in this daily mentions, "The corruption praxis continues because anyone who attempt to report it to law enforcement is excluded from the workplace and [their] career is impeded."
According to the survey’s findings, one state institution even refused to participate. This institution’s political stance clearly raises questions.
The results indicate a big problem in our bureaucratic culture. Corruption has become the lubricant for development in the life of the bureaucracy. State funds from tax or non-tax revenues are abused indiscriminately. All matters concerning public service are used as a means to gain extra income. Bureaucratic licensure is designed to be complicated to provide more opportunities to conduct transactions to ease the difficult process.
In this situation of a corrupt bureaucratic oligarchy, those people with the good intention to report irregularities and dare to be different in their behavior are excluded from the work environment, are disregarded and their careers are ruined. This habitual practice shows that our bureaucracy is seriously and chronically ill. The Integrity Assessment Survey’s discovery of the development of a bureaucratic culture that is corrupt has been a severe blow to the public.
The political elite must remember that the Reform Movement of May 1998 toppled President Soeharto, who had ruled the country for 32 years, from his seat of power. Thousands of people were killed during the May Reform Movement. The Semanggi junction and several other places witnessed our students protest corruption and the New Order regime.
People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Decree No. XI/1998 on State Administration that is Clean and Free of Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism was signed in November 1998. However, 20 years later, the spirit of struggle for an Indonesia that is free of corruption, collusion and nepotism has become disoriented. Corruption continues unabated. Collusion and nepotism are reappearing.
These are symptoms that the nation is moving backward. President Joko Widodo, as the head of state and head of government, must take this situation into serious consideration. The “Mental Revolution” is not enough on its own. “Bureaucratic reform” in ministerial speeches has become mere rhetoric. Bold steps and bold leaders are urgently needed as a kind of shock therapy to fix and clean up the bureaucracy. Several alternative policies are available, like forcing corrupt bureaucrats to retire, but to implement them, we need brave leaders who have the courage to save the nation from corruption and not just think about the elections.
There is nothing more to discuss, as execution is what is wanted – before the government becomes destabilized by the corruption virus.
