The battered mess in eradicating corruption in Indonesia results from the absence of political leadership. If corruption continues to be as rampant as it is today, it is estimated that Indonesia will take no less than 100 years to return to the path to becoming a clean country. The tragic reality contained in the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for Indonesia not only repeats the history a decade ago when President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo assumed power, but with a score of 34, it also reflects the country’s worst decline since 1997, or almost 20 years since Indonesia ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
Indonesia numbers among the Asian countries with the steepest decline and currently ranks 115th out of 180 assessed countries, down from 110th previously. Its poor anti-corruption performance has plunged Indonesia closer to the top third of the most corrupt countries in the world, far worse than neighboring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and Thailand. This position is heartbreaking for a country that held the Group of 20 presidency in 2022 and the ASEAN chairmanship in 2023. Exploring further, the slump in Indonesia’s CPI has been attributed primarily to the increasing grip of political risks that caused legal uncertainty in the country’s business ecosystem.
For instance, Indonesia’s score in the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) of the Political Risk Services again fell from 35 in 2022 to 32 last year. If we look even deeper, Indonesia has declined 16 points in the previous two years. This highlights the continued prevalence of extra payments and bribes related to export-import licensing, which has affected business actors, as well as ongoing conflicts of interest between politicians and business actors in a pervasive political system. This setback is also reinforced by stagnant effectiveness of law enforcement and stalled bureaucratic reform as shown by four other survey: the Country Risk Ratings from Global Risk Insight, the Country Risk Service from the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Asia Risk Guide from the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) and the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project.
The combination of the various data sources above in the CPI reflects a lack of trust in legal certainty among business actors and experts. Indonesia’s decline in the index also confirms that corrupt practices are still the main obstacle that is hindering the flow of high-quality investment and ease of doing business in the country, due to the long, unbroken chain of bureaucratic red tape, exacerbated by law enforcement that has been deemed unable to achieve justice. Unfortunately, this emergency is worsening due to the proliferation of trading in influence in the political and bureaucratic systems. Today, it seems normal to see public officials wearing several uniforms at once: businesspeople as politicians, family-style political parties, overlapping positions and even members of the military in civilian positions.
The legal disaster has also been exacerbated by the increasing blockage of the House of Representatives’ critical functions due to the inferiority of the opposition and the suboptimal role and function of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) due to institutional, ethical and leadership complications since the enactment of Law No. 19/2019 on the KPK. The dysfunction in the instruments for maintaining the balance of power also became complete when the independence of the judiciary came under attack with “Mahkamah Keluarga” (family court), a play on Mahkamah Konstitusi (Constitutional Court), when the court issued a ruling that effectively allowed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to run for vice president, despite the fact that he did not meet the minimum age of candidacy.
The court’s ruling showed the public that there were almost no more lines that respected the principle of limiting power. The shift in the legal and political spectrum on eradicating corruption also stems from the discordant tone in corruption prevention policies. The implementation of Presidential Regulation No. 54/2018 on the national corruption prevention strategy did not increase the CPI score. This regulation appears to be “negotiating” and avoids the deep-rooted problems that significantly impact corruption in Indonesia, namely political corruption. In essence, this regulation is trapped in maintaining the status quo of corruption, collusion and nepotism. So far, various breakthroughs seem to work only on the fringes of petty corruption. Our fundamental problem remains political corruption, especially state capture.
The above problems will not stop with the magic potion of deregulation, digitalization and debureaucratization. Steps to improvement are needed that focus not only on the technocratic and administrative aspects of policy, but also the political system. This step has two essential prerequisites, both of which need courage. First, the most considerable job for a country experiencing democratic regression like Indonesia is to make structural improvements in the formal aspects of making legislation.
This means that the formulation process must be transparent and accountable, guaranteeing citizens’ right to meaningful participation. Ensuring meaningful public access allows monitoring of any possibility that a policy could be taken over for the benefit of a few groups. Second, it is necessary to restrengthen supervisory institutions. The principle of checks and balances will only exist on paper if such institutions are not given the required authority and their independence can be curtailed at any time, primarily the KPK.
At the same time, like in war, the CPI also needs to be used to pave the way and provide an overview of who the real “enemy” is, including for the immediate legislation of several critical legal instruments, such as revisions of the laws on corruption, asset confiscation, foreign currency transactions and political funding. One thing is sure: Amid the current legal disaster pertaining to corruption, rhetorical ideas and policies will not produce far-reaching results.
Each of these prerequisites requires a commander in chief that is fully committed to eradicating corruption and oriented toward the real impacts on society.
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