Why do people want to be corrupt?
When I was in fifth grade, my friends and I were sitting at our school gate waiting for our parents to pick us up. The security guard, clearly bored, started up a conversation.
He asked what our parents did for a living. He made remarks about each of our answers, but what he said about my father's occupation never left my mind.
When I told him mine worked in oil and gas, he said, “Oh that's ripe with corruption, that! Oh what I'd do if I was in that position.” I sat there confused.
The tv says corruption is bad. Why does this security guard want to do something that's bad?
Corruption is cultural
Two years later, my family and I moved to Europe. When I came back to Indonesia, it was 9 years later. I had become an adult, and in many ways, an outsider.
I've now been here 5 years, and I've had to form my own adult opinions about this country. And what I'll say is this: corruption is cultural. It is literally part of the social fabric.
Give me an average Indonesian, and I'd bet that they'd commit some dodgy acts given the chance. Why are Japanese people so polite? Well it's cultural. Why is corruption so rampant in Indonesia? Well it's cultural.
Corruption as a means for survival?
You might be ready to type a comment saying, “Nahh uhh I wouldn't do it.” But if you're fluent in English, you frequent this IG page, and you live in Jakarta, you're not average.
I'm talking about someone earning the country's median income of about Rp2 million (USD 120) per month. Someone living in a town you've never heard of in Central Java. Someone who is now struggling because while they can stretch to pay this month's bill, they work in an informal sector.
So one bad month could put them in a very bad position.
Corruption is everywhere
Every other month there is a big corruption scandal that hits the news. On cue everyone will express their outrage on social media.
Some already resign any hope of anything ever changing. Some will still have the energy to ask why this keeps on happening.
What I'm saying is that there's no difference between the “pungli” (unofficial charges) on the street making you pay for parking and politicians siphoning billions from their constituents. Even at one of the lowest levels of local government, like the head of an RT (head of neighbourhood) will make you pay money if you tried to set up a business or rental property within their jurisdiction.
These are all the same thing! The only difference is the scale.
A collective crime
Given a position of power with an asymmetric opportunity to earn more money for yourself even at the expense of others, a lot of Indonesians would jump at the chance. And it comes down to the fact that for most of the country's history, inequality was a constant feature and social mobility was near nonexistent.
Our status as a developing country has helped alleviate this, but the road is still long.
We can talk all we want about how Indonesia is a collective culture. But introduce money to the equation and you'll see how one's financial security and self preservation suddenly become the most important thing.
We can change
Whether we're talking about the head of an RT or a member of DPR, these people chose to be corrupt because of a survival instinct instilled by our culture that we've continually failed to shed. When social mobility is not expected, people will take any shortcut where they see one.
But it's not impossible to change. The answer is simple, albeit not easy.
As our country becomes more prosperous, our children more educated, and kids become adults knowing that there are social safety nets and merit-based opportunities, there will be very little reasons to commit acts of corruption.
No sin too small
But as I said, it's not easy. You may ask, “How can the next generation be prosperous if the current one keeps being corrupt?” And that's true. I don't have a good answer either.
But at least we can begin noticing the problem for what they are; a systemic and cultural disease.
We must point and shame these behaviors wherever we see them at every level, regardless of how small. We must vote for policies that invest in education, social safety nets, and job creation.
Indonesia 30 years ago wasn't what it is now. Indonesia 30 years from now shall be different too.
