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02/24/2005.
Indonesia is one of the most corrupt countries on
earth. Everyone on the planet knows that.
Indonesia’s former president, Suharto, is the most
corrupt leader/president ever in the modern history of
the world. Almost everyone on the planet knows that. A
table of the most corrupt leaders of the modern
era from the
Transparency International's latest report shows
that Suharto, who was the Indonesia’s president from
1967 to 1998, had amassed US$ 15 to 35 billion in
corruption. This is about 7.25% to 16.8% of the
GDP of the country in 2003, which was about
$208 billion.
As if not enough, Indonesia’s former president,
Abdurrahman was removed from the office due to
corruption scandals. In mid-2000, Wahid became
implicated in two multimillion-dollar corruption
scandals and the national
legislature removed him in 2001.
Add to this is the corruption scandal of the former
Indonesia’s House of Speaker, Akbar Tanjung, who was
found guilty by the lower court in a Rp 40 billion
(US$4.7 million) graft case in 2002. However, on his
appeal he was set free by the Supreme Court, a verdict
which many Indonesians believed that it was highly
influenced by the former president, Megawati
Soekarnoputri.
The list can go on endlessly. The total amount of
corruption in Indonesia will never be known. But it
might be close to the country’s GDP. If that is the
case, and had the money gone to the productive
purposes in the system, it might have well pushed the
country’s GDP to $350 billion which would have placed
the country among the world 17 largest economies.
Put aside that wishful thinking, the recent news put
another disgraceful reality to the already ugly face
of Indonesia. An internet news Detik.com reported that
the Regent of Lampung Utara regency has put an
unbelievable amount of his salary to a budget being
proposed to the local legislature. In the budget, the
salary of the Regent is Rp 107 million per month, or
Rp 1.289 billion per year. The budget for his official
clothes is Rp 65 million per year, and the maintenance
costs of his official residency are Rp 55 million per
month. The total of his salary and other expenses are
at least Rp 1.4 billion. Meanwhile, the regency income
is only about Rp 8.5 billion per year. According to
the report, the annual total budget for the Regent and
for his deputy is almost 25% of the total annual
regency’s income. It is unbelievable.
Let’s put this into perspective. The salary of Tom
Vilsack, the governor of the state of Iowa in the US
in 2004 is $107,482 plus other supporting expenses of
$16,088. This is equivalent to about Rp 1.125 billion
per year (1$ = Rp 9,100). Or if we convert the chief’s
annual salary to US dollar, it is about $164 thousand
per year.
Clearly, for the Regent to propose a salary of that
amount is despicable. The Regent is perhaps trying to
be “honest”. After all, to get into his position he
must have spent a significant amount of money to buy
the representatives’ votes. Now, it is a payback time,
and he does not want to be viewed as a corrupt Regent.
He probably has learnt that many of his colleagues are
now being exposed of corruption scandals. A recent
report by the Indonesian Corruption Watch lists
some governors, regents and majors who are allegedly
involved in corruption scandals.
Last week, when asked about the findings by
Transparency International Indonesia (TII) showing the
customs office as the most corrupt institution in the
country, the Minister of Finance, Yusuf Anwar said,
"Just let it go. I don't care."
And when the Governor of Jakarta, Sutiyoso confronted
with the labeling of Jakarta as the most corrupt city
in the country by the TII survey, the governor
retorted that the wrong businesspeople were probably
selected as respondents—those who did not win tenders
for city projects.
But where is the outrage? We don’t see Indonesians
outraged over the corruption that has devastated their
country.
Indonesia’s future is likely dim. It is not because of
the lack of education of its people. It is because the
people of the country are so permissive to corruption.
As the old saying goes, “All that is necessary for the
triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.
Wake up, people!
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