Bribery in Indonesia Context
Bribery
and Justice in Indonesia
(Should
you pay or not pay bribe?)
Introduction
Bribery is one of the moral problems still we face in
Indonesia. Kuncoro states based on detailed survey, in 2001 firms report
spending on average over 8% of costs on bribes and over 10% of management time
in “smoothing business operations” with local officials[1]. Indonesia Corruption Perception Index (CPI)
is increase from 2.8 (2008) to 3.00 (2011)[2]. But still in its efforts to
eradicate corruption, the country occupied a position 100 of 183 countries
measured. In ASEAN region, score of Indonesia CPI is under Singapore, Brunei,
Thailand and Malaysia. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have lower scores
than Indonesia[3].
What are Christian responses against the
bribery case around them? Is it enough just to abstain from bribes when we are
required to give a bribe illegally? I think we should not only be abstaining
from doing bribe, but also we should think further of how to eradicate the
practice of bribery that has already embedded in a community.
In
order to review this thought I use the method of survey from some passages of
the Bible to examine what the Bible said about giving and taking bribe and its
impact to social justice. I take passages from Old Testament (Book of Law and
Book of Prophet Isaiah) and New Testament (Gospel and Book of Acts). I also
point out about how the bribery give impact to social justice development in a
community, by survey of some literatures and mass media report. As a conclusion, we will have some
suggestions from reflection on how to deal with bribery especially in Indonesia
context.
The
Definition of Bribe
John
T Noonan defines a bribe is “an inducement improperly influencing the
performance of a public function meant to be gratuitously exercised”[4]. Rob Bellingham defines bribery as
“the bestowing of money or favor upon a person who is in a position of trust in
order to pervert his judgment or corrupt his conduct. It intends to make a
person act illegally, unjustly or immorally”[5]. Vinay Samuel on his article states that
“bribes are individual offers of gifts of inducement to influence decision
making; to gain unfair advantage; to escape with supplying substandard service
or products; to receive “out of turn” favors; to facilitate faster delivery
service.” [6]. Encyclopedia Britannica
gives definition on bribery as “penal offense defined as the giving or
receiving of consideration for official favor”[7]. The point to be highlighted
for the definition is the influencing of decision, performance, official
behavior and favor by the power of money, goods or service in order to pervert someone's judgment
or corrupt his conduct.
To clarify the definition, we will distinguish the
differences between bribery with gift, reward, extortion, corruption to find
out the major differences of the terms.
Cambridge Advanced
Learner's Dictionary
|
Webster Dictionary
of American English
|
|
Gift
|
at present or something which is given
|
A present; anything given
or bestowed; the property of which is voluntarily transferred by one person
to another without compensation; a donation.
|
reward
|
something
given in exchange for good behavior or good work, etc
|
Recompense or equivalent
return for good done, kindness, services and the like. Rewards may consist of
money, goods or any return of kindness or happiness.
|
extort
|
to
get something by force or threat, or with difficulty
|
To draw from by force or
compulsion; to wrest or wring from by physical force, by menace, duress,
violence, authority, or by an illegal means.
|
corrupt
|
illegal,
bad or dishonest behavior, especially by people in positions of power
|
To pervert or vitiate
integrity; to bribe; as, to corrupt a judge
|
Survey of Bribery on Old Testament
On the Book of Deuteronomy
“For the LORD your God is God
of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no
partiality and accepts no bribes.” (Deu 10:17)
“Do
not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe
blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent.” (Deu 16:19)
Deu 10:17 gives us description about
God's character that shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. These
expressions of shows no partiality means that “He does not lift up faces”; He
does not base decisions on selective favoritism[8].
PC Craige ( 1976) states that "God shows no partially to man on the basis
of his social and economic standing in the community"[9].
Deu 16:19 is applied to judges and
officials of Israelites. It gives us the reason why bribery condemns in
Israelites. The first reason is that a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise. Judge
or official can lose their neutrality on a decision making because of a bribe.
Second reason for not doing the bribery is that the
bribery can pervert the words of the righteous.
On the Book of
Prophet Isaiah
Your
rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and
chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the
widow’s case does not come before them. (Isaiah 1:23)
who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the
innocent. (Isaiah 5:23)
Those who walk righteously
and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands
from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and
shut their eyes against contemplating evil— (Isaiah 33:15)
Love of bribes to the leaders of Israelites
makes discrimination. They were loving bribes,
greedy after rewards and rejected to defend the case of fatherless and
widows. This will happen when laws only stand for the rich and the poor become
forgotten. In bribery, money has power to manipulate a case to someone
advantage. And the weak (the poor, widows, orphans), who do not have money
required; do not have power to gain their justice. As Richard Langston said
that “For a bribe they will deny justice to the poor (Am 5:12), the orphan, and
the widow (Is 1:23). They will make deals with rich man to do whatever he wants
done (Mic 7:3), even to the extreme of killing an innocent person (Deut 27:25;
Ez 22:12)”[10]. That is
the condition of a society which the greedy after bribe have corrupted in the
society.
Bribery on the New Testament
In the book of Gospel, we can find some passage that contains
principles about bribery. Richard Langston appointed some events as: Chief
Priest and Judas (thirty silver coins), Chief Priest and the Guards of Jesus'
Tomb (bribe for false testimony of the soldiers)[11]. The expulsion of vendors at
the Temple is Jesus first act performed in Jerusalem[12]. In John 2:16, “And said unto them that sold doves..... make
not my Father's house a house of merchandise.” The birds sacrifice is used for
the poor. God's justice and righteousness must be enforced, first in the Temple
as the center of Jewish religion.
In the story of Zacchaeus, he
confesses to public about his conversion (Luke 19:8) “....and if I have cheated
anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” As also John
the Baptist instructed Tax Collector (Luk 3:13) “Don't collect any more than
you are required to”. I think the conversion of Zacchaeus gives us perspective
of not just to condemn or judge the acts of “bribery or extortion” (sinner).
One of Jesus concern from the story is how to bring the lost back to the Father
and they restored by their faith to God.
At the book of Acts we have the story of Simon the Sorcerer and
Peter. In Act 8:18-24, “.... he offered
them money, Saying, Give me also this power...” Simon wants to use power of
money to buy the gift of Holy Spirit. And his act condemn by Peter
as“wickedness”. Peter also describes: “for thy
heart is not right in the sight of God”, “thou art on the gall of bitterness,
and in the bond of iniquity”. There are
many things behind the surface of “offering money” that can be counted as
“wickedness” and “our heart is not right in the sight of God”.
The story of
Felix and Paul also appointed by some authors to connected with “bribery”. Act 24:26 “He hoped also that money should have been given
him of Paul, that he might lose him”. Felix, a Roman Governor hopes Paul gives
him money to release his case. But Paul
did not give him money to be out from the prison. Paul preached to Felix before
about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. It is Paul's
integrity for his witnesses of the Gospel more than the opportunity to be
released by the power of money.
The Impact of Bribery
In his article, Vinay Samuel gives conclusions of the
impact of bribery to our life. Bribery can[13]:
1.
Create an unjust advantage and distort
justice
2.
Create expectations and bind the
receiver to the giver’s agenda
3.
Pervert normal power structures and
maintain the perverted structure of extortion
4.
Benefit the rich and disadvantage the
vulnerable
Noonan gives four reason why bribery is likely continue to
be morally condemned[14]:
1.
Bribery is universally shameful
2.
Bribery is a selout to the rich
3.
Bribery is a betrayal of trust
4.
Bribery violates a divine paradigm
Noonan
states that at anthropologically view, the bribe taking (Hebrew: shohadh)
has risked danger and in fact brought about disaster by polluting the
community. He further states that like the violated sexual rules, the
commandment against shohadh (bribe), if observed, have protected a
nation[15].
As we can conclude that accepting bribery is not only has small impact on a
community. It also has risk danger to a nation when it become embedded and
accepted culturally in the nation. Justice becomes distorted, righteousness has
no sound in the country, and the weak is being oppressed because of no more
justice.
Bribery in Indonesia Context
For the past 5 years Corruption Eradication Commission
(KPK) of Indonesia has been aggressively fighting to corruption. “We are
carrying out the most aggressive anticorruption campaign in Indonesian
history,” Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia said[16]. An
Indonesian court on April 2012 sentenced the former treasurer of the governing
Democrat Party to four years and 10 months in prison and fined him 200 million
rupiah for bribery, in the first of several verdicts in a case that has riveted
the nation and shaken the party of the President[17].
In Ernst &
Young’s recent 2012 annual global fraud study, 60 percent of Indonesian
respondents said that making cash payments to win new business is acceptable
practice[18]. It stills a long way for Indonesia to be able
to eradiculate the culture of corruption from the country.
Justice and
righteousness still become irony in the country. Some cases give a very
contrast alignment of justice for the poor and for the rich. There are slogans
sounding in the public: “Give money and your case will be release” or “for all
to ease your business, you need cash”.
For the rich, they will be released from their case, or be extended for
months or years on the “bargaining” process. The power of money will speak for
'the have'. The poor cannot do anything because they do not have anything to
give as a bribe to buy justice.
Tragedy of
flip-flop (slipper) being a 'burn' discussion by Indonesian People on the end
2011. People raised movement to collect “one million flip-flop sandals for
justice” as a symbol of injustice in Indonesia and gives it to the police
office center. There was a case of a boy (15 years old) stole a pair of
sandals-flops belonging to policemen. The boy was facing a possible five-year
jail sentence but the court instead ordered that he be sent home[19]. This case appeared in the midst of many cases of bribes of billion Rupiah which
is lifted up on court and public media on the past three years but still no
clear end because the convoluted process.
Three years ago, there is other case of
grandma Minah, live in Sidoharjo, Central Java, who was sentence to be punished
6 months jailed because she stole three cocoa fruit (the price is about 30
cents SGD at traditional market) from the plantation of PT Sari Antan. Minah
had a reason for what he has done. She already had 200 seeds of cocoa on her
own, but she wants to add a little amount of cocoa seed on her farm. To achieve
the company's plantations, she walked away from her home along the 3 km more.
The other case at the same province, four former parliament members of
Semarang, Central Java suspect in corruption case for doubling the regional
government budget about 2, 16 billion Rupiah sentenced to be free.
We still find
many forms of corruption and bribery in Indonesia. We could say from making an
ID card, driving license, installation of electricity, sometimes we can meet
someone who take advantage of the situation and gain for their own profit. But
there is still a hope to fighting against bribery. There are many people still
stand to fight on bribery in the country.
Conclusion
Base on my observation of the principles, I
recommend not pay the bribe. When you pay a bribe, that indicate
that you are agree with the practice of bribe will be existed and continued in
the country. Imagine that the case will be happen and continue to other persons
by generations as an unbreakable chain if no one wants to stop the practice.
When you pay the bribe, that means that you are agree that the power of money,
goods or service can be used as a tool to pervert a decision or to make your
own rule to facilitate your need.
My recommendation to the Mission Committee how to deal with
bribery:
1.
Pray for the pass issued
2.
Ask advise from local Christian
people/leaders
3.
Talk to the officer honestly
o
Showing your honesty and integrity is
more valuable than to give them bribe. It will be a good learning process for
them to encounter negative respons of bribery from their client.
4.
Talk to the head of the department
about the case (a higher position)
o
Share your case persuasively and
honestly to the head of department
o
Share your case to the institution in
the department that accept public complains. You can give your complain of the
case of to the Office of Public Complaints and Reporting Corruption. There are
many room to share your complain in media as a sharing or writing reflection
for people to learn from the case.
5.
Take the cost/consequences : waiting a
longer time for the issuing pass is better than to give a bribe
6. If
you want to give a gift to someone, make sure that you know the differences
between bribe and gift. A gift is a present that you can freely give without
any agenda to influence
someone's decision or to gain unfair advantage; to gain favor, or to have a
faster delivery service out of the rule for your own sake.
[1] Kuncoro Ari & Henderson, J. Vernon, A Paper: “Corruption in
Indonesia”, Brown University and University
of Indonesia, April 2006.
[2]
The CPI scores countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high
levels of corruption and 10, low levels
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/dec/01/corruption-index-2011-transparency-international)
[3] http://ti.or.id/index.php/publication/2011/12/01/corruption-perception-index-2011
[4] Noonan,
John T., “Bribery.” In A New Dictionary of Christian Ethics,
ed. James F Childress & John Mac Quarrie. (London: SCM Press LTD, 1986)
p 65-66
[5] Rob
Bellingham, “Bribery” In Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Ed. A
Scott Moreau (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000)
p 146
[7] “Bribery”
In The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol
2 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1992) p 509
[8] Christipher
Wright, “Deuteronomy” (Massachusets: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996) p 148
[9] P.C
Craigie, “The book of Deuteronomy” (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976) p 206
[11] Langston,
p 51-54
[12] John T
Noonan Jr, “Bribes”, (New York:Macmillan
Publishing Company,1984) p57
[13] Vinay
Samuel, p26
[14] Noonan,
p 702
[15] Noonan
, p18
[16] Source
New York Time:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/world/asia/former-treasurer-convicted-of-bribery-in-indonesia.html
[17] ibid
