Author(s): Todung Mulya Lubis

Asian

What stands between Indonesia taking its rightful place in the world?For Indonesian society, corruption remains a huge problem. Some of the reasons for this are easy to identify, flowing on from the authoritarianism of the Soeharto New Order (1966-1998). Other factors are less well known and less able to be easily intuited. As Todung Mulya Lubis, one of Indonesia's leading human rights lawyers and most influential legal thinkers, explains, 'Now corruptors come from the legislature, government, judiciary, and business communities, and they are not simply thieves but rent-seekers, benefiting from rapid economic development and weak law enforcement'. In Todung's telling, the best efforts of the most unswerving and talented Indonesian opponents of corruption have been frustrated since the epochal overturning of the Soeharto regime a generation ago. This story, however, is not without flashes of illumination. As Todung also shows, in recent decades there have been very many successful prosecutions of corrupt government and state officials, from the lowest levels to the very upper echelons of society. The creation of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission, the KPK, in 2003, was an inspired move. For all its problems, arising from both internal dynamics and the often hostile social and institutional environments in which it has operated, the legal independence and dogged idealism of the KPK have made it a genuine force for renewal. War on Corruption- An Indonesian Experience, is a courageous, informed, and sober insider's account of the challenge for democracy and the rule of law within this fourth largest nation, by population, and vital participant in world affairs.