Jon Emont, Singapore – Dozens of foreigners attending a large music festival in Indonesia were detained by police, accused of using drugs and allegedly told to pay thousands of dollars to gain their release, exposing what experts say is a deepening toll of corruption in a nation that aspires to be a global economic heavyweight.
Indonesia's Tourism Ministry said that police behavior at the mid-December rave in Jakarta had tarnished the international reputation of the country as it promotes itself as a world-class destination.
Police officials said that 18 officers were detained as part of their investigation into allegations that police tested attendees for drugs and demanded payments, including from those who tested negative.
Police said they have identified 45 Malaysian victims and have seized $155,000 as evidence in their investigation. Some people who witnessed arrests said they believe the actual number of victims was higher and involved other nationalities.
Indonesia took action to rein in rampant corruption two decades ago, at the dawn of the country's democratic era, but there are growing signs the world's fourth-most populous country is losing the fight.
An independent anticorruption commission set up in 2002 with wide-ranging powers to surveil and arrest officials suspected of corruption was reined in by laws passed in 2019 that put a government-appointed body in control.
Since then, the agency, which had acquired heroic status in the eyes of many Indonesians for challenging police misbehavior, has been beset by scandal. Its leader was pushed out in 2023 after being accused of attempting to extort an official it was investigating.
In March, the agency arrested 15 current and former employees for allegedly extorting detainees at jails by charging them hefty fees in exchange for benefits such as access to cellphones and power banks to charge them.
Indonesia's police have weathered high-profile scandals including the conviction of a former senior police general, Ferdy Sambo, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2023 for arranging the killing of a rival officer.
Corruption charges against rivals of the country's most powerful politicians, meanwhile, have raised concerns that anticorruption tools are being used for political ends.
The latest incident, with foreigners involved and disrupting a well-known festival, will have "untold costs for perceptions about the tourism sector and Indonesia's overall international image," said Kevin O'Rourke, a Jakarta-based political analyst.
Indonesia is now ranked 115 out of 180 nations by Transparency International, an international nongovernmental organization that uses surveys to measure perceptions of corruption.
"The credibility of anticorruption efforts is in shambles," said O'Rourke.
Indonesian political leaders have long sought to turn the resource-rich archipelago into an economic powerhouse. Large reserves of nickel for the world's electric-vehicle batteries, coal to fuel Chinese industry and wood for the world's paper mills have kept Indonesia's economy humming at a decent pace of around 5% growth a year.
But Indonesia has struggled to kick things into a higher gear needed to achieve its goal of becoming a developed economy by the 2040s.
Some Western businesses are leery of investing in Indonesia, given what they say are expectations of bribes by public-sector workers. That has ceded the field to China, whose companies have become major investors in Indonesia's raw materials and dominate nickel, a strategic mineral.
Indonesia's government is targeting tourism as a potential growth industry, hoping to follow in the footsteps of its neighbor Thailand, which brings in tens of millions of visitors a year, many drawn to its temples and beaches, as well as its jungle rave parties.
A national tourism campaign in Indonesia has highlighted the Djakarta Warehouse Project, an annual event on the regional electronic dance music calendar. The festival in December was headlined by electronic-music stars including the Netherlands' Armin van Buuren and Australia's Timmy Trumpet, who plays horn solos during his dance music set.
The uproar began after the festival had ended. Angry ravers uploaded posts and videos complaining of police mistreatment. Negative comments flooded the festival's social-media pages. Organizers expressed regret and said they were working with authorities to investigate what happened.
Amir Mansor, a 29-year-old Malaysian real-estate agent, said he and a few friends were leaving the festival in the early hours of Dec. 14 when they were detained by police posing as ride-hailing drivers and taken to a Jakarta police station.
Once there, they were put with a group of other Malaysians and tested for drugs. All were told they would need to pay money to be released, including those who tested negative, with police officers saying they should have been aware of drug use among their friends, according to Mansor.
Mansor said the police told them they couldn't contact lawyers or their embassy, and were only allowed to call family members and friends to help raise the money. He said he was able to negotiate the rate for a group of nine detainees down to around $22,000, or around $2,500 per person.
"For me it was a little bit scary," Mansor said. "It's in a foreign country, we don't know what's going to happen."
Indonesia has strict laws, with possession for many recreational drugs carrying a minimum sentence of four years, and drug trafficking punishable by death.
Another Malaysian said he was detained during the festival along with his girlfriend. He said police told him that if he called the Malaysian Embassy they would be formally booked, making a heavy prison sentence a distinct possibility. They paid up.
Many ravers said on social media they would choose Thailand next time.