As the battle against corruption intensifies in the legal arena, pressures mount for this acute societal disease to be simultaneously fought in a different mode: through social sanction.
Proponents believe that there needs to be a concerted move to further combat the chronic problem since the prosecution – most pointedly when our legal system is proved to be also corrupt – has so far been unable to satisfy the public's quest for justice.
Trailblazing moves by the four-year-old Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to successfully prosecute selected corruption cases – though far better than efforts by its older brothers, the Attorney General's Office and the Police – are inadequate and cannot meet people's thirst for truth while our court system remains vulnerable to bribery and extortion, two fundamental forms of corruption.
The fact that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has decided to "clear" his two Cabinet ministers, despite strong indications of their complicity in the alleged misuse of Rp 100 billion (US$10.9 million) of Bank Indonesia funds, has only added insult to injury. And most importantly, it was a public denial of the President's own anti-corruption commitment initiated during the early days of his presidency.
Perhaps the general public still remembers SBY's remark published in a Jakarta-based current affairs magazine in early November 2004: "This country will be destroyed if we do not stop the growth of corruption. There needs to be some shock therapy so the people know that this government is serious about corruption."
It is therefore reasonable for the general public to come up with the tried and true idea of the importance of publicly humiliating or socially sanctioning those implicated in corruption cases, besides simultaneously indicting and investigating them through the courts.
Some anti-corruption activists have proposed that all corruption suspects and convicts, no matter their social status, wear uniforms and be handcuffed during prosecution. Others have even suggested that they be paraded along the city's main streets so that fellow residents or citizens be given the opportunity to pelt them with rotten eggs, fruit and vegetables just as what English petty criminals experienced during the Middle Ages.
The proposals, however, are not free from controversy. As some legal experts have put it, such public humiliation and social sanction would be meted out beyond the aegis of the court and would therefore put undue burden on the wrongdoers.
Despite the controversy, all of these suggested punishments are well-established forms of insult or humiliation meant to deter others from committing similar wrongdoing.
In a South Korean high-profile prosecution in the mid-1990s, the government put on national TV its handcuffed former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, convicted of corruption and other criminal charges. Closely related or not, the South Korean lesson has proved effective in reducing corruption cases in that country.
To some extent, such public humiliation and social sanction against convicted officials could be effective in reducing if not eradicating corruption in Indonesia. Imposing capital punishment on those convicted of corruption is the subject of ongoing debate as part of the Indonesian public supports while another part disagrees with the imposition of the death sentence for various crimes including corruption.
Apart from the legal controversy, calls for the use of uniforms and handcuffs, for example, should be considered. These practices offer the public real evidence of the universally accepted norms of "equality before the law", meaning that each individual is subject to the same treatment under the law with no individual or group having special legal privileges. Such egalitarian practices erase feudal and aristocratic legacies.
To sum up, it is perhaps worth considering a well-known quote by Karl Kraus, an eminent early 20th-century Austrian writer and journalist: "Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country."
And to bring an end to rampant corruption here, all means are worth a try, including public humiliation and social sanction.