Penulis Irfan Kamil, Jakarta – The results of an Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) poll shows that 58.3 percent of respondents believe that there has been an increase in corruption over the last two years.
The survey was conducted to garner the opinion of social groups who potentially have information and experience related to the issue.
The LSI garnered opinions from businesspeople between December 17, 2020 and January 7, 2020, and opinion makers between December 20 and January 25.
"The survey found that in business circles as well as among opinion makers, the majority (both at 58 percent) believe that corruption has increased over the last two years", said LSI Executive Director Djayadi Hanan during a virtual press conference on Sunday February 7.
Meanwhile around 25.2 percent said that there has been no change and 8.5 percent said that corruption had "declined".
On the other hand, said Hanan, this perception is in concert with an increased tolerance for bribery and kick-backs which is quite high.
Around 23.4 percent of respondents consider it normal to give something such as money, goods, entertainment or gifts outside of required or stipulated fees in order to facilitate a process or as a form of appreciation when relating to government agencies.
Meanwhile a significant number of businesspeople have a positive attitude towards nepotism. In addition to this, around 21.1 percent consider nepotism to be normal and 13.6 percent believe that it is necessary to smooth business.
"Although more have a negative attitude (50.9 percent believe it is unethical, 10 percent believe it is a crime), the positive assessment of nepotism is quite high bearing in mind that this practice is one that is characterised as negative", said Hanan.
The survey sample was taken from a population of businesspeople across Indonesia based on the National Statistics Agency's 2016 Economic Census.
The sample was based on 800 companies selected randomly (stratified random sampling) from this population in proportion with the region and business size.
For analytical purposes, this was augmented by a sample of an additional 200 respondents from a sub-population of medium- and large-scale businesses resulting in a total sample of 1,000 respondents.
Respondents were one of the owners or executive managers of a company from the selected companies who were interviewed by telephone.
Notes
According to the Berlin-based NGO Transparency International Index for 2020, Indonesia slipped to 102nd place from 85th in 2019 scoring only 37 points out of a possible 100 in the index, a drop from 40 points last year. This places Indonesia on par with Gambia and far below Singapore's 85 points, Brunei's 60 points and Malaysia's 51. This also places it below the global average of 43.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Survei LSI: 58.3 Responden Menilai Terjadi Penigkatan Korupsi dalam 2 Tahun Terakhir".]
