Several mega questions arise every time a Nusantara stories appears. The biggest question is the extent to which corruption will become part and parcel of the making/building of Nusantara, given its scale and the amount of money and time it will take to build this political capital that far away from Indonesia's capitalist hub. Let's be real: the scourge of corruption in Indonesia -- from the regime to the bureaucracy, from the police to the armed forces, from business through "society" -- is endemic and embedded in Indonesia's political, social and economic structures and institutions. None of these are mutually exclusive. And for all his "big talk", Jokowi has failed -- miserably -- to rein in corruption.
Think of Malaysia, where corruption at the official and non-official levels of that country, have been and still reflects a swirling disease. Think of all its megaprojects, all sanctioned by the Malay state from Mahathir to Najib Razak to very possibly Anwar Ibrahim that have enlisted these regimes' politico-business cronies. Anwar Ibrahim might easily claim, as part of his now standard PR stunt, that he's doing something about corruption there. But is he, really? And why would he when it is clear that, as in the past, and so today, corrupt practices, state patronage and populism is what keeps the exclusively Malay regimes in power.
Is it any different in different in Indonesia? The roots of the Suharto era corruption remain embedded. The maniacal greed for wealth accumulation, by hook or crook, is well established since the Asian financial crisis. The downfall of the Suharto and the rise of post-Suharto regimes each has singularly failed to put Indonesian corruption front and center of state policy -- not only under Jokowi but, I'll bet, even under the dark figure of Probowo for all of his "big talk" too.
Several mega questions arise every time a Nusantara stories appears. The biggest question is the extent to which corruption will become part and parcel of the making/building of Nusantara, given its scale and the amount of money and time it will take to build this political capital that far away from Indonesia's capitalist hub. Let's be real: the scourge of corruption in Indonesia -- from the regime to the bureaucracy, from the police to the armed forces, from business through "society" -- is endemic and embedded in Indonesia's political, social and economic structures and institutions. None of these are mutually exclusive. And for all his "big talk", Jokowi has failed -- miserably -- to rein in corruption.
Think of Malaysia, where corruption at the official and non-official levels of that country, have been and still reflects a swirling disease. Think of all its megaprojects, all sanctioned by the Malay state from Mahathir to Najib Razak to very possibly Anwar Ibrahim that have enlisted these regimes' politico-business cronies. Anwar Ibrahim might easily claim, as part of his now standard PR stunt, that he's doing something about corruption there. But is he, really? And why would he when it is clear that, as in the past, and so today, corrupt practices, state patronage and populism is what keeps the exclusively Malay regimes in power.
Is it any different in different in Indonesia? The roots of the Suharto era corruption remain embedded. The maniacal greed for wealth accumulation, by hook or crook, is well established since the Asian financial crisis. The downfall of the Suharto and the rise of post-Suharto regimes each has singularly failed to put Indonesian corruption front and center of state policy -- not only under Jokowi but, I'll bet, even under the dark figure of Probowo for all of his "big talk" too.