Bibit Samad Rianto: The Nation Must Unite Against Corruption

VIVAnews - Corruption has become a topic of everyday conversation.

Corruption is deemed inappropriate. It is the common problem of a country. It causes a nation to decline.

Therefore, everyone must fight against it.Corruption is neither a habit nor tradition. It is none of mismanagement as well, as people see it. However, corruption is a crime.

Corruption includes bribery, extortion, committing fraud over state assets while serving a position, cheating, conflicting interests regarding procurement, gratification, and abuse of authority in order to enrich oneself or one's corporation.

In the Corruption Law (Law no.31/ 1999 juncto Law no.20/2001) corruption is divided into seven big groups and 30 offenses. The amount of money does not justify a corruption. The sum does not matter.

Thus, using issues on survival as the ground for corruption are not justifiable. One cannot commit robbery or exploit forest only to survive. If we remain in our corner and do nothing, it will become a terrible habit.

Furthermore, corruption will affect people's manner. They will not have a sense of assessing whether or not an act is categorized corruption. In other words, it will degrade their morality. They say corruption depends on the intentions (for example, paying illegal fees is justifiable if it is intended as a charity). Such a view must be opposed.

How appaling is corruption in Indonesia? According to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), there were more than 31.000 corruption cases reported between 2004 and 2008. In 2008, there were more than 8000 cases reported. That means there were approximately 660 cases reported every month and 185 cases every week. That also means there were at least 37 cases reported everyday.

In conclusion, there were a lot of corruption indications that could be reported to KPK. In almost every department or institution, there was corruption case. If the investigation is set out across the country none of the areas are corruption-free.

The International Transparency gave Indonesia a Corruption Perception Index (IPK) of 2.6 in 2008 while Singapore was given 8.0.

In the past five years, KPK has prosecuted many corruptors who were coming from every level of office. Fighting corruption cannot be carried out only by prosecuting the suspects. The root of the issue must be identified. The reason for this is that although many of the corruptors have been prosecuted, corruption cases will keep on occurring as long as the root of the issue has not been found.

Corruption is like an iceberg. The action is on the surface while the root of the problem lay beneath it. Every corruption offense in every spot has its own characteristics called the corruption anatomy.

Corruption can be handled by applying repressive methods like arresting and prosecuting the suspects. Another way is by imposing preventive methods (preventing the causes of the corruption); the preemptive way, such as removing the initial cause of the corruption, can also be launched.

KPK and the authorities alone cannot deal with corruption. Every element of the nation is required in the every effort of corruption eradication.

(Teks & foto: Vivanews)