Abdul Khalik, Sanur, Bali – The fight against corruption has slowed over the last four years because forces linked with Soeharto's New Order regime remain in power, a seminar here heard Thursday.
The three-day forum, which began Thursday in Sanur, Bali, is being attended by representatives of civil society organizations including Transparency International Indonesia, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Partnership for Governance Reform.
It aims to formulate proposed actions for the upcoming conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), which will take place in Nusa Dua next week.
"We're running but not getting anywhere. The old forces have repositioned themselves into the democratic process, and are preventing our efforts at corruption eradication as it's against their interests," a political sociologist with National University Singapore, Vedi R. Hadiz, said.
Speaking on the first day of the seminar, he said regional autonomy, which was implemented in 2001, had contributed to spread corruption to "lower levels of society".
The Berlin-based Transparency International ranked Indonesia 143rd out of 179 countries surveyed last year in terms of corruption. The country had a corruption perception index of 2.3, down from 2.4 in 2006 when it was ranked 130th out of 163 countries.
The survey found Indonesians considered the police the most corrupt government institution, followed by the judiciary, legislature and political parties.
In its latest survey, the ICW found that judicial bodies had less success in 2007 in terms of fighting graft, with only 82 cases resolved compared to 161 in 2006.
Corruption cost the state around Rp 25.4 trillion in losses between 2004 and 2007, the group said.
Vedi, who has conducted intensive research into the democratization process and corruption in Southeast Asia, said Soeharto-linked forces had managed to control most state offices, including executive, legislative and judicial bodies, as well as the media industry.
He said the country's 10 years of political reform had failed to prevent New Order regime forces from returning to power, allowing them to block efforts to eradicate corruption.
This has forced the public to rely on civil society organizations for combating corruption, he said.
Vedi said civil society organizations should unite and organize to gain a bigger say in the political process, because corruption in Indonesia could not be solved through technical or legal approaches.
This call received a positive response from other seminar participants. Non-governmental organization activists in attendance agreed to the need to unite and find ways to propel the fight against corruption.
They said that although civil society groups had similar interests in fighting graft, they were divided. "We need to organize ourselves to better combat corruption," Piet Soeprijadi, deputy executive director of the Partnership for Governance, told the forum.
While underlining the key role of civil society in pushing the corruption eradication agenda, Felia Salim of Transparency International Indonesia said the corporate and private sectors could help efforts to eradicate graft through their corporate governance and corporate social responsibility programs.
"Self-monitoring mechanisms are the best tools for companies to prevent corruption, as the current markets will automatically punish those involved in unlawful practices," said Felia, who is also an independent commissioner with state bank BNI.