First time or even regular visitors to Bali may wonder what
all the fuss is about, or even if Indonesian fraud and corruption
is that much of a problem, and even if it is whether it actually
affects them or the Balinese that much. The difficulty in
foreigners understanding how bad this cancer actually is and
the harm it does others is that the corrupt authorities and
unethical businesses of course do not inflict anything but
a mere smattering of their nastiness upon the money tree holidaymakers.
The most corruption and fraud foreign visitors generally get
exposed to are spot fines without receipts for highly questionable
alleged motoring offences, being ripped off by foreign exchange
desks, being sold fake goods as genuine, being sold low quality
items as "best, best" and being poisoned by food
vendors (including famous expensive restaurants)!
But fraud and corruption ruins, and even takes lives. One
business person with a grudge against or commercial fear of
another abusing their "good" contact with a high
ranking corrupt police officer to make problems for their
competitor or even put them out of business. Corrupt police
officers too busy looking to make a dishonest buck delegating
police duties to murderous local vigilante groups, taking
bribes from drivers to wave them through security checks,
working with drug dealers and pimps to extort money out of
anyone stupid enough to use the services of these gutter dwellers,
escorting coach loads of "dignitaries" to a funeral
or festival through traffic for a fee, ignoring illegal effluence
dumping, stopping Balinese tourism drivers for a "donation",
etc. In short, corruption equates to human misery, increased
health and safety risks for anyone on the island, and the
economic suppression of its people.
Corruption extends beyond the police of course. Defense lawyers,
prosecutors and judges all have a nasty reputation for colluding
with police officers to extort money from victims. Local government
offices which issue things like passports, driving licenses,
building permits, qualifications, tourism permits, etc. etc.
are all seemingly as corrupt as you can get. But of course
such extensive corruption can only come from the top if it
is to survive, even flourish. The origins of Indonesian corruption
go back to colonial days but were entrenched during the Suharto
era. But corruption has actually gotten worse since democracy
came to Indonesia after Suharto's downfall. In an interview
with Tempo Interactive former premier Megawati is reported
to have indicated in no uncertain terms that every member
of her cabinet was corrupt. Recent statements by Indonesian
health officials clearly indicate Megawati herself was corrupt
and authorized the suppression of details of bird flu outbreaks
as "favours" to the main poultry companies. So if
the whole government is corrupt, what else do you expect from
their subordinates and even citizens?
Publicly Indonesia claims to be tackling corruption, but
that seems to be just lip service. The presidentially appointed
Indonesian Commission Reduction Commission (KPK) actually
only appears to deal effectively with cases of fraud, not
corruption. An example is where the corruption commission
claims success by bringing successful prosecutions against
bank employees and their accomplices for defrauding state
owned banks; but that is dealing with fraud, not corruption,
and they are clearly only doing Indonesia's ineffective police's
job for them. In point of fact even if you lodge a complaint
of corruption against the police with the corruption commission
and the commission agrees there is a case to answer for, the
case is turned over to the police for investigation! Therefore,
if someone's complaint is against Bali's most senior police
officers they end up investigating themselves, which of course
is not likely to bring just conclusions. Also fueling the
corruption fire and preventing any fire fighting ability is
the fact Indonesia does not allow foreign lawyers to conduct
criminal law in their country, there is no police complaints
or ethics department, and we have yet to find a single case
of where anyone has managed to actually sue the Indonesian
government / authorities for compensation; little doubt because
the police, prosecution, defense lawyers, judges and politicians
all collude so much for their mutual interest.
BLTF's own world renowned defamation and human rights specialist
lawyers, Simons Muirhead & Burton in London successfully
defended the right for the Guardian Newspaper in England to
publish the facts of £16.5m corruption money paid by
British company Alvis PLC to a Suharto family member in order
to secure funds from the Indonesian Government for an army
tank order. Apparently because the facts of the corruption
were first divulged during a court case by Alvis' agent against
them for unpaid commissions and because the case was subsequently
settled out of court and included a confidentiality agreement
between the agent and Alvis PLC, Alvis claimed that no details
of the corruption could be reported. It is widely believed
the British Government supported and even prompted Alvis to
so act because of the sensitive nature of what these tanks
were to be used for. You see there were no proper military
needs for these weapons, they were believed therefore to be
destined for the suppression of their own people in Aceh and
the people of East TImor; that is used against civilians.
So it seems corruption not only cost Indonesian tax payers
dearly, but also the lives of more than a few innocent civilians
of their rebellious provinces.
This therefore somewhat answers the question why foreign
governments do not issue travel warnings to their citizens
about corruption in other countries, because they have "wider
issues" to consider. Of course this basically translates
to maintaining one set rules for us at home and another for
them in other countries. All for the sake of a buck or rather
big bucks for their major powerful corporations through trade
deals, and for the fear of seeing Indonesia's fledgling democracy
collapse into a militant Islamic revolution. To an extent
you can even understand why foreign governments have to play
such duplitious games, especially as other countries like
North Korea, Russia and Pakistan are keen to develop their
military sales links with Indonesia. And where there are plenty
of other countries ready to sell big ticket items such as
hydroelectric dam project management and equipment to the
Indonesians. You can't officially go upsetting such a nepotistic
country because you will lose out. That's why foreign governments
make pious statements about International responsibilities
on the one hand and yet tolerate what goes on inside and with
Indonesia on the other. And that is why it is up to the conscientious
individual to do what they can to help Indonesia fight corruption
by being very selective about where they stay, who they use
and what they do if and when they witness or even experience
corruption or fraud themselves. Only by making responsible
tourism more profitable and unethical tourism more painful
will the traveller and the Balinese people win.
For more details of some of the shocking effects of police
and judicial corruption and business fraud, please visit our
pages Fugly Bali and Bali
BS. For details of our recommendations on how to report
any fraud or corruption you become aware of or exposed to,
please see our appropriate pages; e.g. to report police corruption,
please see our page: Bali Police.
To understand some of the problems that result from corrupt
that affect foreign travellers to Bali, please see: Bali
Health Risks.
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