CORRUPTION AND “BESOK AJA”

Published in The Jakarta Post on 25th November, 2006

Poverty and unemployment in Indonesia are becoming so increasingly acute they are now high on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s political agenda. Earlier this month at the Indonesian Infrastructure Conference 2006 he appealed to foreign investors to help finance the upgrading of the country’s roads, power plants and ports to the tune of USD 22 billion. The reason, he said, was to help tackle widespread poverty and unemployment.

Attracting USD 22 billion is no mean feat, especially when other Asian countries offer high returns on capital and Indonesia is ranked 135th out of 175 countries in the “2007 Doing Business Report” that measures ease of doing business.

Risk assessment, though, is likely to be the deciding factor. How great a risk will foreign investors perceive they are taking in investing in Indonesia? Efforts have been made to improve the rule of law, but still judicial and police corruption are widespread thereby undermining it. It is the rule of law that secures assets as capital and where it is weak, capital investment risk is invariably high. Attracting capital under these conditions is difficult unless high returns are offered in recompense and over-the-odds returns of this ilk represent a serious loss of wealth to the country – money that could and should have been spent on eradicating corruption and strengthening the rule of law.

At his State of the Nation Address on 16th August, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared that, “Conflicts and quarrels must be brought to an end. Justice and prosperity must continue to be increased. A sense of safety, peacefulness and prosperity must be solidified.” Yet, should, as a result of corruption, Indonesia’s infrastructure not be upgraded, worsening poverty and unemployment could well lead to political instability that would increase the risk of investing in Indonesia even more. Corruption eradication and the strengthening of the rule of law are, therefore, essential if a downward spiral acting not only contrary to the Government of Indonesia’s professed vision for 2004 – 2009, but also the nine priorities of the 2007 Government Work Plan (RKP) and even the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015, is to be avoided.

Why is corruption proving to be so intractable? Perhaps because the fact that it is just one manifestation of a negativity woven tightly into the nation’s collective mentality, is not being recognised. The action that is taken to eradicate corruption is often marginal, peripheral and lacking in the political will to act now. Corruption is seen as a problem that will be solved sometime in the future and the emphasis is on bringing to light and punishing selectively some of the transgressions of the past. As a policy it is unconvincing, but is indicative of the “besok aja” (tomorrow will do) mentality. Unfortunately, tomorrow never comes.

Indonesia must adopt a collective mentality of dealing with the present – with the now. Another indication of the failure to do this is the religious, ethnic and separatist discord and strife that have erupted over years. Problems need to be solved today through learning from the past. In fact, if grievances and ill-feelings from the past were dropped now rather than some indeterminate time in the future, many of Indonesia’s problems would simply dissolve and those that remain could be tackled far more effectively because of the sharper focus that would automatically surface.

Stamp out corruption today, not tomorrow or years into the future. The legal infrastructure already exists, as do the law enforcement agencies. All that is missing is the will to act now – and I do not mean just the will of the government. I mean the will of the Indonesian people collectively.

The habit of indicting the past and investing hope and energy into the future to the detriment of the present, is ultimately negative and allows poverty, unemployment and discord to grow simply through lack of awareness of the destructiveness of this approach. The only answer is to become aware now, to focus on now so that negative emotion dissolves and to act now.

The Islamic “Minal Aidzin wal Faizin”, is in fact, a reminder to find success through the purity and perfection of now, whereas “Besok aja” means today is no better than yesterday and never will be.