Religion and Corruption

A few years ago, I was asked to talk at a seminar on the role of faith and morals in preventing corruption for the sake of development. It was really not easy to formulate such a role. Available data shows that religion and faith are not, in fact, fully effective in preventing corruption.

A poll by US-based survey group Gallup a few years ago, involving 1,000 people in each of 40 different countries, shows that the poorer a nation is, the more important religion is in the life of its people. For countries with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita less than US$2,000, 99 percent of people see religion as a highly important part of their lives. The situation in Indonesia is similar to a number of other developing countries.

In countries with GDP per capita of more than $25,000, only 47 percent share this opinion, except in the US where the figure reaches 65 percent. Only 19 percent of Danish people see religion as an important part of life. At the time of the survey, Denmark was named the least corrupt nation in the world and Indonesia sat in 111th place. Other Muslim countries were below Indonesia.

A number of questions were listed in the seminar's terms of reference (TOR). First, why has the moral and religious calling of corruption eradication not had a satisfyingly firm impact? Second, how can we understand expanding corruption amid the strengthening campaigns of religiousity and social justice as the nation's fundamental traits? Third, if education is deemed important as a means to eradicate corruption in terms of faith and morals, what substance is necessary as curriculum content at all levels of education?

Corruption or corruptive behavior?

We need to differentiate corruption (as in the act of crime itself) from corruptive behavior. The criminal act of corruption is a violation of the law that fulfills various aspects formulated in the complicated language and logics of the law and can often have many interpretations.

We can easily find acts of crime committed by various state institutions and we choose to neglect and take them for granted as it is difficult to come up with legal proof for these acts. One example is the decreased quality of buildings due to significant budget cuts from the actual amount listed in state or regional budgets during the construction projects.

Corruptive behavior is a violation of the law that results in the neglect, disruption, or even deprivation of people's comforts or rights. The state and the public at large may also suffer from losses. A common form of corruptive behavior is the payment of fees to certain regional officials to ease the processing of big-scale mall or residential construction projects. The practice of providing kickbacks to certain state or regional officials to obtain bureaucratic or business positions also falls in this category.

Also included is the recent development of providing political dowries, namely to rent out political parties to serve as vehicles for certain candidates in regional elections.

Another corruptive behavior commonly found is paying voters to choose certain political parties or figures in general or regional elections, as is paying members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) to buy votes for certain candidates by subtracting the votes of other candidates from the same political party. And let's not forget the common practice of buying votes in political party congresses, youth and student organizations and even certain religious organizations.

We also commonly hear about buying certain legislators to smoothen the deliberation of certain draft bills and draft regional regulations, like Jakarta legislator Sanusi, which led to his arrest by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Another example is the practice of buying construction project tenders from legislators, as in the case of Dewi Yasin Limpo. It used to be that this corruptive behavior (which is, in fact, in itself an act of corruption) was untouchable by law enforcers but is now within reach due to the KPK's wiretapping authority.

The criminal act of corruption and corruptive behaviors are downstream issues while education - including religious education - are upstream issues. This is also the case with the increasing number of sexual assault cases lately. Strengthening punishment is a downstream matter while antiviolence education is the relevant upstream matter. According to experts, education aims to foster "value awareness", which in general covers three things. First is the knowledge and understanding of the said values. Second is the appreciation of said values. Third is voluntary commitment to said values.

A majority of schools (including religious schools) are too focused on the aspect of knowledge, including on these values, at the expense of educating students about appreciating the values on a deeper level so that they end up voluntarily committing themselves to those values.

In values education, transformation of understanding is something that is achieved in the long run. An ethical value cannot be automatically embodied in behavior immediately after it is learned by students. Teachers often forget that the students they teach many not fully comprehend the values, let alone be able to internalize them as a form of appreciation that leads to the emergence of new awareness.

Afterwards, experts say that, as a matter of fact, the internalization of values involves a long-term mental transformation. This process begins by understanding the values, feeling the understood values, respecting these feelings, believing and voluntarily committing to these respected values and encouraging others to implement values that they believe in.

Thus, our understanding of certain values does not necessarily encourage a change of behavior. If we do not feel them enough, do not respect them enough, do not believe in and commit to them enough and do not have enough encouragement to implement them, these values will have no impact whatsoever on our behavior. We need to decide what values we want to instill in our children at home and at school. In the context of our nation's current condition, honesty is the most pressing value, followed by antiviolence, justice, responsibility, tolerance, helping one another and social awareness.

Unsupportive conditions

As far as I understand, religion is ineffective in fighting against corruption and the phenomenon of increasing acts of violence as religious education is too focused on cognitive aspects (teaching) at the expense of the affective aspect based on real examples and habituation. There needs to be real action to encourage the appreciation and internalization of values and their transformation into action as laid out above.

Of course, there are obstacles in carrying out the whole process. Someone who grows up in a family of businesspeople who often bribe officials and decisionmakers will be used to corrupt practices, even if they were taught that such practices are forbidden by religion. A teenager growing up in a family of politicians who often buy votes of political parties and in general elections can easily follow the same path.

Officials in state institutions are used to paying gratuities to certain authoritative officials to obtain higher bureaucratic positions. Promotions to strategic positions in well-regarded regions cost money. Such a condition accustoms people to these evil practices. It is not easy to fight them.

In a number of schools of lower quality (at which teachers may also be of a lesser quality), often times we see how teachers help their students in uneducated ways, such as illicitly buying leaked national examination sheets. Ever since they were little, these students have been introduced to dishonest ways. They are used to the line of thought that being honest is hard. Thus, a whole picture is painted in these students' eyes that honesty only makes life complicated.

In one media report, it was recently revealed that a high-ranking state official from a law enforcement agency asked his whole family to hide US dollar bills in the toilet in his bathroom. If the family is so used to violating state and religious laws, such habits will only lead their children to follow their parents' bad behavior.

In the realities of life in our nation today, with many corrupt officials being arrested, we find many people wishing to carry out corrupt behavior and corruption. It seems that they are unaware they are being followed and wiretapped by KPK officers. Why are they still brazenly violating the law?

First, it is because they are so overcome with greed that they do not feel guilty in doing what they are doing. Second, they have no shame at all as many state officials have been known to conduct such acts. Third, they no longer fear the punishment that awaits them in life and in death. They think that they will still have lots of money once they are freed from prison. What may frighten them is the threat of impoverishment or the death penalty. Fourth, there is no social punishment at all from society. People still respect officials who have been known to commit corruption.

by Salahuddin Wahid

source Kompas, Monday, June 20, 2016