A damnable scourge

AMONG the many slogans, songs, signs and banners that supporters of Joko Widodo chanted, sang and waved during last year’s presidential campaign, one string of words encapsulated his appeal: “jujur, bersih, sederhana” (honest, clean and humble). Unlike both his opponent, Prabowo Subianto, and the president they were vying to replace, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Mr Joko has a humble background. Jokowi, as he is best known, is the son of a timber collector who grew up in a flood-prone shack.

Unlike many Indonesian politicians, he had risen to power untainted by suspicions of corruption. As a candidate he promised to make government more transparent. But eight months into his presidency Jokowi is learning a hard lesson: condemning graft is a lot easier than doing something about it.

Indonesians of all stripes gripe about sticky-fingered officials. America’s Commerce Department says foreign and domestic businesses in Indonesia regard corruption and ineffective courts as “serious problems”. Transparency International, a watchdog, ranked Indonesia 107th out of 175 countries last year in its index measuring how corrupt countries’ public sectors are perceived to be. That is worse than India, China and four of the ten countries belonging to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is not where a country arduously seeking to attract foreign investment wants to be.

One way Jokowi has tried to fight corruption is by removing opportunities. As governor of Jakarta, the post he held before assuming the presidency, he moved many government services online, depriving bribe-hungry bureaucrats of chances to extort backhanders. A move towards online procurement, which began under Mr Yudhoyono, has saved Indonesia billions of dollars. In May Jokowi urged local governments and state-owned enterprises that had not shifted to e-procurement to do so. It would not only make government more accountable, he said, it could also save them billions of dollars.

Jokowi has also moved to clean up the oil-and-gas sector. In November he replaced the entire board of Pertamina, a state-owned oil-and-gas firm. In May the government decided to liquidate Petral, an offshore trading arm of Pertamina that has long been suspected of being controlled and plundered by Indonesia’s “oil-and-gas mafia”. Jokowi also appointed a former head of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to head SKK Migas, an upstream oil-and-gas regulatory agency whose former boss, Rudi Rubiandini, had been sentenced last year to seven years in prison for accepting over $1m in bribes.

The KPK, however, is struggling. Its trouble began in January when Jokowi nominated Budi Gunawan to head the national police force. Mr Gunawan is close to Megawati Sukarnoputri, a former state president and head of Jokowi’s political party. In his appointment many saw Jokowi doing his political patron a favour. Soon after the nomination, the KPK declared Mr Gunawan a suspect in a bribery case.

As public pressure mounted on him to withdraw the nomination, Jokowi remained aloof, apparently wanting to damage neither his anti-corruption bona fides nor his relationship with Ms Megawati. After dithering for ages, he withdrew Mr Gunawan’s appointment. Soon after the KPK named Mr Gunawan a suspect, the police identified Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, the KPK head and his deputy, as suspects in separate criminal cases. By law KPK commissioners must recuse themselves while under investigation (no such requirement exists for police who are suspects). The commission has therefore spent the past several months crippled. The police seem to believe they have effectively neutered the KPK: last week the chief of detectives refused to divulge his net worth to it, as he is required to by law.

The KPK and the police have often been at odds and no doubt will be again. But this particular fight will blow over. Last month Badrodin Haiti, whom Jokowi appointed as police chief in April (Mr Gunawan is now his deputy), ordered his force to obtain his permission before investigating KPK officials. Jokowi has named a nine-person committee (all women) to suggest candidates to replace KPK leaders whose terms end in December.

But doubts raised by how Jokowi handled the fight will linger. How many more appointments will he have to make at Ms Megawati’s request, and what happens if the KPK starts investigating them? Incoming KPK commissioners may think twice about investigating the police. Jokowi has been globetrotting in search of foreign investment in his country’s infrastructure. Many Indonesians wonder whether he has the resolve and political capital to allocate such projects fairly. Weeding out corruption will be a hard battle, but Indonesians elected him to wage it.