"For the Indonesian elite, though, the real game is corruption. The newspapers teem with stories about it, ordinary people loathe it, and the corruption eradication commission, KPK, Indonesia's only trusted government institution, makes valiant attempts to combat it, but still it is an epidemic that undermines the national health.
Corruption and incompetence in the tax office means Indonesia's tax take - at 11 per cent of GDP - is among the lowest in the world and what is collected falls victim to fingers in the till. So the public servants are underpaid, the health system anaemic, the schools starved of funds, and infrastructure underdeveloped.
Bureaucrats take "make-up" pay in the form of gratuities extracted from people interacting with government. Many licences or approvals require an illegal payment, and even then you cannot guarantee you will get what you have paid for. Receiving a parcel in the mail can cost more in dodgy customs duty than the value of the goods.
Don't complain to the police; they are corrupt. Or take your case to the court; there is no guarantee the lawyers, the prosecutors and the judges are not corrupt also. In 2013, even the chief judge of the constitutional court Akil Mochtar - the equivalent of Australia's High Court chief justice - was arrested for taking bribes.
Money can buy freedom for the guilty, or a prison term for your enemy. Two innocent teachers from the Jakarta International School are facing years in a cell because they were unlucky enough to get caught up in a system well beyond their ken.
Corruption makes the simplest procedures complex, time-consuming, of unpredictable cost, and potentially high-risk. Doing business takes patience and nous. Mining, where Australia has particular expertise, is associated (both in the constitution and in the psyche of ordinary Indonesians) with nationalism, so foreign miners, no matter how well-intentioned, are often viewed as thieves attempting to steal Indonesia's wealth.
Living in Indonesia even gave me an appreciation of the benefit of plaintiff lawyers in Australia. The gaping holes in the footpath, the crazy paving and open sewers that make pedestrianism virtually impossible, even in the wealthy centre of Jakarta, would be repaired in a Western country before a blizzard of lawsuits hit. But in Indonesia, a legal remedy would require both a plaintiff willing to complain and a court system and lawyers whose decisions were not for sale. So, every city street remains an obstacle course. "
So, what corruption was going on before the AFP reported the Bali 9 to Indonesian authorities, that allowed previous drug deals to Australia ?
Looks like a lot of info will go with Chan and Sukamurun to their graves.
I hope that EQ in Sumatra increases in intensity today.