MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, YOGYAKARTA – Deputy Chair of the Muhammadiyah Council for Community Empowerment Council (MPM) Ahmad Maruf highlighted a correlation between corruption and poverty in Indonesia. He argued that these issues are partly caused by flawed decentralization policies.
“The idea behind decentralization was to reduce corruption through regional autonomy, but this hasn’t happened. In fact, corruption has become worse at the local level. Decentralization has unintentionally spread corruption to the regions, and there’s still corruption in the central government,” said Ahmad Ma’ruf at the Ngaji Berkat (Community Empowerment Enrichment) program on Friday, June 14.
Peter Carey’s presentation supported Ahmad Maruf’s ideas. Peter emphasized that problems with how local elections are held are directly contributing to increased corruption and poverty. He said that money politics is a major reason for these problems.
“The way elections are held, including national elections and regional elections, has become unfair because of money politics,” said Peter Carey in the program discussing ‘Corruption and Poverty: The Socioeconomic Impact of Corruption on Marginalized Communities.
Peter Carey also blamed Indonesia’s weak anti-corruption agencies for the country’s widespread corruption.
“Since it was founded in 2004, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has only been able to catch about 3% of corruption cases in the government. This is because the KPK doesn’t have offices in all the regions, and corruption is getting worse at the local level.”
Peter Carey added that corrupt families (political dynasties) that dominate local politics often make things worse. He said that Indonesia needs ongoing improvements throughout all levels of government.
To combat corruption, Peter Carey suggested several solutions, including working together more between the government and private parties.
“Another important step is to improve training for government employees and to create a culture of honesty and integrity in how civil servants do their jobs,” said Peter Carey.
