Civil society organisations' contribution to the anti-corruption movement in Indonesia

Abstract

Soeharto era concern about corruption was deflected by the establishment of toothless anti-corruption committees, and by suppression of anti-corruption activism and media comment. With Soeharto's demise, activists began to publicise their concerns more openly – at first speaking in general terms, but later making increasingly specific allegations. The sporadic activism of the Soeharto years was consolidated, first through cooperative action among similarly motivated informal groups, and later through establishment of formal civil society organisations (CSOs) intent on rolling back corruption. The CSOs have played a key role in pushing for new laws and institutions to help eradicate corruption, and many corrupt officials have been imprisoned. This paper finds little evidence, however, that corruption has declined significantly. It argues that further progress depends on CSOs gaining a better understanding of the underlying causes of corruption, and that these are to be found in public sector personnel management practices.

Acknowledgements

We thank Ian Chalmers, Miyume Tanji and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article, and Janice Baker for editing assistance.

Notes

¹In an interview published in Media Transparansi Online in October 1998 (available at <http://transparansi.or.id/images/stories/majalah/edisi1/1berita_4.html>), Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas mentioned several founders, including former ministers Bambang Subianto (finance), Juwono Sudarsono (education and culture), Malik Fajar (agriculture) and Kuntoro Mangkusubroto (energy and mineral resources), together with the current president and vice president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono. According to Adib Achmadi, MTI's training and publication coordinator (interviewed by Budi Setiyono, 6/3/2008), other founders included the late Nurcholish Madjid (a prominent Islamic scholar); Mar'ie Muhammad (a former finance minister); Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas (a director of the state-owned mining company PT Tambang Timah, who was later appointed as a commissioner of the Corruption Eradication Commission [Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, KPK]; Sri Mulyani Indrawati (a lecturer at the University of Indonesia who later became finance minister); Koesnadi Hardjosoemantri (a former rector of Gadjah Mada University); Bambang Harymurti (journalist and editor of Tempo Magazine); and Amien Sunaryadi (a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, later also appointed as a KPK commissioner).

²In Makassar, for example, the local LBH branch, together with other CSOs, conducted an investigation and then filed a lawsuit in October 2008 over corrupt activities allegedly involving the city's mayor and the Lapangan Karebosi tourism development project.

³‘BUMN’ stands for ‘badan usaha milik negara’ (state-owned enterprise).

⁴The establishment of the team had been mandated by Law 31/1999 on the Eradication of Corruption, which was formulated during the Habibie administration.

⁵The selection committee consisted mainly of representatives from the ministries of Law and Human Rights, Administrative Reform, and Finance, together with the attorney general's office, the police, and the State Secretariat.