Slowly but surely, Indonesia's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score continues to improve every year. This year, Indonesia's CPI score has increased by two points from the previous year to 40 and is now in the 85th position of 180 countries.
The report was delivered at the Corruption Perception Index 2019 result launching by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) on Thursday (23/1) at the Sequis Center, Jakarta.
Responding to this increase in the CPI, a Member of the Supervisory Board of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Syamsyuddin Haris appreciated this achievement. "Hopefully in the future (Indonesia’s) CPI score can increase significantly," he said.
He also said that corruption in Indonesia is prevalent among political parties. According to him, the current Indonesian political party system still facilitates the flourishing of corrupt politics.
"The parameters are very clear. We can see them in the systems of presidential election and local leaders’ election. There is no real commitment from the state to build a good system. The current system still opens up opportunities for ongoing corruption."
Therefore, Syamsuddin suggested that there must be an intensified improvement in the political party governance system. He also advised the public to continue to increase its monitoring of the government for the development of Indonesia.
"Public pressure must be increased. Without that, it is difficult to imagine that Indonesia will improve in the future. The KPK, political parties, and the government must always be reminded. This has become the task of civil society," said Syamsuddin.
Meanwhile, the Research Manager of Transparency International Indonesia, Wawan Suyatmiko said that the increase in the CPI score shows that the efforts to eradicate corruption carried out during 2019 has given positive results.
"The score has increased by two points from 2019 which indicates that the joint struggle against corruption done by the government, the KPK, financial and business institutions, as well as civil society shows positive efforts," said Wawan.
According to him, there are four data sources that have contributed to this increase, which are Political Risk Service, IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, Political and Economy Risk Consultancy, and World Justice Project-Rule of Law Index.
"The biggest contributor is the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook with an increase of 10 points from the previous year. This increase is initiated by strict law enforcement against the perpetrators of bribery and corruption in the political system."
In addition, the Secretary General of Transparency International Indonesia, Dadang Trisasongko, also said that in addition to the effort to improve the ease-of-doing-business system, the increase in the effectiveness of law enforcement against the practice of political corruption has helped to increase CPI scores significantly.
However, he continued that there is still a hard task that must be completed, which is breaking off corrupt relations between state officials, public servants, law enforcement, and business people.
"If done successfully, we believe that this condition will give the biggest contribution to corruption eradication. The reformation in political institutions must be done seriously. At the same time, strengthening the independence of the KPK must also be a main agenda," said Dadang.
Seven Recommendations
On that occasion, TII gave seven recommendations that can be implemented to further increase the next CPI scores which are managing and preventing conflicts of interest, controlling political funding, strengthening the integrity of General Elections, and regulating the transparency of political lobbying activities.
"Breaking the chain of immunity and strengthening political party governance are the two most important things to do," said Dadang.
Furthermore, TII also recommended that the state give equal treatment to all citizens and strengthen the role of civil society as well as the checks and balances function.
Globally, the world average CPI score is 43 points. As much as 60% or 120 of the 180 countries measured by CPI have scores below 50, including Indonesia. Five other countries have the same score as Indonesia, which are Burkina Faso, Guyana, Lesotho, Trinidad and Tobago, and Kuwait.
Indonesia ranked fourth among ASEAN countries after Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and Malaysia. In 2019, Denmark and New Zealand were in the first place with a score of 87, followed by Finland in the second place with 86. Meanwhile, Somalia was still in the lowest position with a score of 9.
(PR)
