STOP THE BACKSLIDE!

Posted by Asia Views | Feb 24, 2023 | 0 |

INSIGHT

February/March 2023

When Transparency International (TI) announced its latest 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Pahala Nainggolan, the Anti-Corruption Agency’s (KPK) deputy for prevention, was shocked to discover that Indonesia’s score had dropped 4 points to 34, where it was back in 2014 when President Joko Widodo first came to power. In fact, it is the biggest drop in two decades.

At a recent public seminar, Nainggolan admitted that there had been no breakthrough in the country’s fight against corruption, lamenting our inability to break the ceiling score of 40, which we attained in 2019.

Everyone knows the problem and we are good at identifying the causes. Yet no one seems to be seriously doing anything about it. So, why the shock?

Coming from a senior official of the KPK, once the country’s most powerful and respected anti-corruption agency, Nainggolan’s comments were disturbing.

Clearly, the persistent warnings raised by academics and activists on the consequences of a backsliding democratization during Joko Widodo’s second term presidency, has not been heeded. We are in danger of heading towards a future that is harking back to authoritarianism and we don’t seem to care.

The CPI is a composite index of 9 different data sources, one of which is the PRS International Country Risk Guide. The Guide looks at, among others, issues of political corruption, conflicts of interest between politicians and business, and bribery. Indonesia’s score in this Guide, nose-dived from 48 to 35, pushing down the overall CPI. Our scores in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook and the PERC Asia Risk Guide have also fallen 5 and 3 points, respectively.

With a score of 34 and ranked 110^th place among the 180 countries in the survey, Indonesia has fared no better than Gambia, Malawi and Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Nepal in curbing corruption. In ASEAN, excluding Singapore the region’s outlier, we are behind Timor Leste, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which have all successfully broken the mental barrier score of 40.

Of considerable interest is TI Indonesia’s analysis of scores from the perspective of political regimes. It has found that the average score of deficient democracies is 44. Compare that to the average CPI score of 30 among moderate autocracies and that of 36 among hybrid regimes. Indonesia’s score of 34 lies somewhere in between, giving us an idea of where we are on the road to a working democracy. Even our procedural democracy is precarious due to the Electoral Commission’s controversial decision to allow unqualified political parties to participate in the 2024 elections.

Political analyst Dr. Ahmad Khoirul Umam of Paramadina University, questions whether as a nation we are even interested in becoming a democracy or in fighting corruption, judging by the way the elites have delegitimized the KPK and the ongoing discourse on extending presidential terms and reverting to the closed-list electoral system. From the legal perspective, academic Bivitri Susanti expressed her concern on the growing ‘autocratic legalism’, namely the state’s use of laws and regulations to suppress democratic institutions established to reinforce checks and balances in the political system.

As for conflicts of interest, what can be more blatant than having businessmen sitting in the legislative and executive branches of government? Are we to believe that once in public office, they can curb their business impulses to seek profits for their corporations?

Bear in mind that corruption has the potential to incite conflict and threaten peace, as the 2022 CPI reminds us. When corruption leads to public resources being used for private interest, policies and laws are often manipulated to benefit the ruling elite and when law enforcement agencies – including the judiciary – are no longer trusted or cease serving the public interest, as a nation, we are under serious threat. With the upcoming presidential and legislative elections due in 2024, we can either brace ourselves for the worst or persist in raising our voices in strong protest.

Natalia Soebagjo Bali resident & writer

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POINTS TO PONDER

EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

STOP THE BACKSLIDE!

INSIGHT