The most eye-opening of this year’s Magsaysay awardees may be the recipient from Indonesia, the Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission) or KPK. Regularly ranked among “the most corrupt countries in the world,” Indonesia suffers from endemic corruption on all levels of governance. Then the Indonesians decided to get serious about corruption. In 2002, Indonesia established the KPK under Law Number 30 of 2002. The KPK has broad powers for investigating and prosecuting cases, recovering stolen assets, as well as preventing corruption by educating the Indonesian people. Since its inception, the KPK has prosecuted 169 high-profile cases of corruption among ranking government officials, successfully convicting every single official charged. That’s 100 percent. The KPK has recovered over $80 million in stolen assets. Beyond the seizures and the arrests, the KPK is trying its best to ingrain the idea of transparency and integrity in a society hamstrung by its casual crooks. Its innovative educational campaigns ring fresh. Among The More Interesting Campaigns Are The Establishment Of So-Called “Integrity Zones” In Government Offices (Imagine That) And The “Honesty Shops,” Where Customers Pay Whatever They Want. How popular is KPK? When KPK needed a building and the parliament wouldn’t fork over the funds, Indonesians voluntarily gave their own money. The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation’s citation for KPK accurately called it “a symbol of reform and hope for Indonesians, and is hailed as one of the few effective anticorruption agencies in the world.”
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 23:56:08 +0000
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