NU urges govt to prioritize corruption handling

 

Wonosobo, NU Online
Corruption in Indonesia is still a serious problem for being capable of posing fundamental threats to the national security and other strategic sectors. Therefore Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has urged the government to prioritize to handle various cases of corruption having so far been considered part of the reform agenda.

"Unscrupulous conspiracy involving political parties, bureaucrats and businessmen as the source of any corruption has weakened the foundations of statehood and national leadership in efforts to achieve prosperity," General Chairman of the Central Board of NU KH Said Aqil Siroj said at the closing plenary session here on Sunday (8/9).

Another issue taken up by the purposeful forum is the failure of liberal democracy that focuses more on the procedural aspects and has fostered public apathy towards the political system. Even, most people have now expected a return to the like-authoritarian New Order era.

"Therefore NU does encourage all stakeholders to immediately accelerate the consolidation of democracy and promote noble characters (akhlakul karimah) so that substantive democracy could immediately be realized," kiai Said said.

Indonesia is reportedly still ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Corruption tends to be on the rise, mostly carried out by officials at the national and regional levels. The low ranking of Indonesia’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is the proof.

On Dec. 6, Transparency International announced that Indonesia was ranked 118 of 176 countries in 2012 CPI. Indonesia scored 32 points and in the same position with Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, and Madagascar. The information was delivered by Natalia Soebagjo, the Indonesian Transparency International Secretary-General on Dec. 6.

She said that Indonesia’s ranking has not changed in the recent years, still near the bottom, regionally. Compared to other South East Asian Countries, Indonesia’s ranking is below Singapore (ranked 5 with 87 points), Brunei Darussalam (ranked 46 with 55 points), Malaysia (ranked 54 with 49 points), Thailand (ranked 88 with 37 points), and the Philippines (ranked 118 with 34 points).

While other South East Asian Countries ranked near the bottom besides Indonesia are Vietnam (ranked 123 with 31 points) and Myanmar (ranked 172 with 15 points).

Every year, the Transparency International releases the CPI, a global index measuring the level of corruption formed by combining several indexes from various institutions. The CPI measures the perception level of corruption in the public sector, carried out by state officials and politicians.

Reporting by Mukafi Niam; Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq