Terong (Eggplant): I'd like to be a doctor!!! A cool title but one that can now be bought. Wage payments also tend to get delayed...

Terong: Or, become a legislator, a real representative of the people!!! They say the income compared to the ordinary people is like the sky...

Terong: But this is the trendiest choice!!! Become a corruptor! An income in the trillions. Get investigated you can just laugh it up!!! The sentence will be light!!!

While many might aspire to having a doctorate from a prestigious academic institution, a spate of recent scandals in which doctorates have been bought or written by hired writers (as in the recent case of Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia) have tainted academic titles.

And the recent controversy over the government's refusal to pay civil servant lecturers overdue performance allowances has also highlighted the vulnerability of academic jobs and exposed how politics and bureaucracy are undermining real reform of the country's higher education system. 

Being a legislator can also be attractive. Aside from the position and power it brings, lawmakers also receive a generous salary and a whole slew of perks such as free hosing, electricity and phone allowances, and of course overseas junkets paid for by the public purse.

But with new corruption cases being reported almost daily in the media, the trending choice these days seems to be becoming a corruptor.

Not only does it bring with it an income in the billions of dollars, even if you do get caught, light sentences and generous remissions for "good behaviour" mean corruption convicts only end up serving a year or so in prison.

A report by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) released in October last year showed that the average prison sentence handed down to graft defendants throughout 2023 was only three years and four months, which falls into the "light" category based on a 2020 Supreme Court regulation.

The ICW also found that state prosecutors only demanded an average prison sentence of four years and 11 months and 236 million rupiah in fines for graft convicts throughout 2023.

And even those few years behind bars can pass quickly and easily for wealthy (thanks to their corrupt practices) and politically connected prisoners.

News reports regularly expose cases of prisoners living in cells described as looking like "5-star hotel rooms" with amenities including expensive furniture, refrigerators, air-conditioning, flat-screen TVs and private bathrooms and showers. Many prisoners reportedly have mobile phones and laptops and others are even able to purchase the privilege of carrying the only keys to their cells.

And thanks to the continuing failure of courts to apply the 2010 Money Laundering Law and lawmaker's obvious reluctance to enact the Draft Law on Asset Seizures, upon release convicted corruptors even get to keep their ill-gotten gains.