Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – It appears that the country's redundant bureaucracy can be a boon for some.
A case in point: The East Jakarta Immigration Office. The hassle that comes from applying for passports has created a cottage industry of passport brokers.
It was here that former tax official Gayus H. Tambunan allegedly obtained a passport under a fake name, Sony Laksono, that he later used to travel to Macau and Kuala Lumpur in September last year.
But you don't have to be a well-connected suspect in a tax scam trial to be able to obtain a passport quickly. All you need is cash, lots of it.
Officially, the East Jakarta Immigration Office charges applicants Rp 270,000 (US$30) for a regular passport and Rp 600,000 for an electronic passport, both processed in eight days.
But in case you need it sooner, there has never been a short supply of brokers who can be as powerful as the immigration officials.
At first glance, it is difficult to tell the difference between these middlemen and regular applicants. But to the trained eye, the dress and demeanor is a giveaway.
"If you want them to come to you, just hang around near the desk where applicants fill out the forms. They will soon greet you and offer you their services," Edra, who regularly makes use of the brokers, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The Post loitered long enough at the spot but no one approached and we soon asked a newspaper vendor about the brokers. "You want your passport to be processed quickly? I know the people you are looking for, come with me," Ivan (not his real name) told the Post.
Ivan then introduced the Post to a middle-aged woman, Lulu (not her real name), who sat in the corner of a hall close to the passport processing section. Lulu was very friendly, and on first impression, nobody would have thought that she was a heavyweight broker who had run her operation for years at the office.
"I can get your passport done in three days for Rp 750,000. If you want it to be finished in one day, you need to pay Rp 1,500,000," said Lulu, who claimed that she ran the brokerage operation with her husband for the past 20 years.
She said her fees was not negotiable as all brokers used a standard price. "However, if you want to make passports for more than one person, we can chisel the price down to Rp 650,000 per person," she said.
As lucrative as it might seem, the passport brokering business only provides a small cut for its brokers, Lulu said. "We only get Rp 100,000 of the Rp 750,000 for helping applicants get their passports quicker," she said. Brokers also spend Rp 25,000 paying go-betweens such as Ivan, who connect clients and brokers, Lulu added.
Things turned sour after the Gayus fake passport scandal broke, she added. "Ever since the Gayus case, there has been a bit of a shortage in demand, and it's getting more difficult to process requests from clients who want their passports in less than three days," Lulu said.
Minister Patrialis Akbar has strenuously denied that the East Jakarta Immigration Office issued Gayus' new passport, but the reality is that the system is porous.