http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/unlike-in-africa-indonesias-bandits-come-with-a-smile/394920Unlike in Africa, Indonesia's Bandits Come With a Smile Wijayanto | September 06, 2010 If someone were to ask me to recommend two books for weekend reading, I would recommend "False Economy" by Alan Beattie and "Bad Samaritans" by Ha-Joon Chang. Both are well written and discuss complex economic issues in a simple way. What's more interesting, both have a chapter on corruption in Indonesia. In his book, Beattie compares prosperous but corrupt Indonesia and clean but poor Tanzania, while Chang explains why corrupt Indonesia is much more prosperous than corrupt Zaire, despite the fact that Zaire was much wealthier in the 1970s. According to the authors, even though corruption is prevalent in Indonesia, most of the dirty money stays in the country to keep the economy rolling. The corrupt invest the money in various businesses, buying houses, cars and enjoying extravagant lifestyles. Interestingly, many of them also donate money to the poor or various social organizations, and build campuses or schools. By contrast, Zaire's corrupt keep their money in Swiss banks, draining the country at a time of great need for capital, turning the economy into total disarray. Why do corrupt Indonesian officials and businesspeople keep their money in the country while those in Zaire deposit the money abroad? Mancur Olson's "Tyranny, Anarchy and Democracy" helps us understand this phenomenon. According to Olson, two type of "bandits" exist: the roving bandit and the stationary bandit. Each behaves differently in the ways they commit crime and in how they spend the wealth they gain. The first type is made up of those who have short-term interest and act like ordinary criminals. Just like in cowboy movies, bandits like this come in groups. They attack small towns, rob banks and hotels, destroy buildings and then leave. These bandits have no interest in staying and move from one town to another. Stationary bandits have a different strategy. They come to a town, live there and become part of society. Using their intellect and charm they try to win over the hearts of the people. Their main goal is to enter the highest levels of society. In many cases, they prefer to become kingmakers and install their puppets in various public positions. Often, they themselves become the king and control the town administration. Once in control, the bandits transform the system so they can enrich themselves. By changing the rules of the game they ensure they are protected by the law. If they do break the law, their influence means they always win the legal battle. Stationary bandits control government budgets, dominate access to natural resources and run various businesses. A more prosperous society means a larger market and a higher profit. It also means more tax revenue for the government and a larger government budget which they can then usurp. It is in their interest to develop the town. They don't destroy the physical form, but the institutions, the law, the political system and the fabric of society. The roving bandit is the perfect description of many corrupt governments in Africa, including Zaire. In contrast, Indonesia is the perfect example of the stationary bandit phenomenon. Stationary bandits are much tougher to fight than roving bandits, since they will create a system to camouflage their actions and protect themselves legally. Stationary bandits can be very elegant people. However, despite their appearances, they destroy the environment, disregard financial and capital market regulations, force people to resign from government, help smuggle oil to neighboring countries, evade tax on a grand scale, buy political support and control the media to mislead the public. The existence of stationary bandits has made our collective dream to turn Indonesia into a clean country a distant reality. The fight against corruption started only a few years after Indonesian independence in 1945. In fact, Indonesia was one of the first countries in Asia to have an anticorruption law. However, the existence of stationary bandits has weakened the anticorruption effort and diverted it from its original goal. In 2004, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated: "I myself will lead the war against corruption." Interestingly, this statement is similar to President Suharto's remark on Independence Day in 1971, when he said: "There is no hesitancy that I myself will lead the war against corruption." But let's hope that the end of the story will not be the same. SBY still has four years to prove that he is different from his predecessor and to leave a legacy as a leader who freed his people from the trap of corruption. A journey to the moon begins with a single step. The first step for SBY is to clean his inner circle of stationary bandits. Wijayanto is deputy rector of Paramadina University and managing director of the Paramadina Public Policy Institute. He can be reached at wijaya...@paramadina.ac.id. This article also appears in the September issue of GlobeAsia Magazine. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
