World Anti-Corruption Day: Promises Of Pursuit Of Corruptors To Antarctica Disappeared From The Beginning

JAKARTA Every December 9, World Anti-Corruption Day is commemorated to raise awareness against corruption. But unfortunately, the eradication of corruption in Indonesia is still far from expectations, and even tends to decline.

Corruption became a major enemy in Indonesia's development. At the beginning of his election as president, Prabowo Subianto said he had prepared a special budget for eradicating and pursuing corruptors who often ran away.

"Even if he (the corruptor) runs to Antarctica, I send special forces to look for them in Antarctica," said Prabowo, at the closing ceremony of the Gerindra Party Rapimnas, August 31, 2024.

Prabowo expressed his determination to eradicate corruption which has been a serious problem in Indonesia. He even considered corruption as an extraordinary crime.

However, promise remains. More than a year after boasting that he would pursue corruptors to Antarctica, the Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka pair actually broke all promises of a corruption eradication campaign, and even pushed back the reform agenda.

In this Prabowo era, there were patterns that used to fertilize corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN) as well as support the New Order regime. Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) revealed that there are at least three general patterns of how the joints of democratic and anti-corruption governments have been eroded.

"Normalization of increasingly vulgar conflicts of interest, including in the cabinet; centralization of executive power by presidents who disrupt checks and balances," wrote ICW in a statement received by VOI.

"In addition, this regime is also intensifying paronase and chronicism or reciprocal politics and sharing cakes for close people," he continued.

Whereas in eradicating corruption, in addition to legal instruments and the empowerment of citizens to be involved in the anti-corruption movement, it also requires a strong commitment of the head of state to form government personnel and systems that effectively prevent corruption and maintain accountability.

These two things, said ICW, have become a weak point for eradicating corruption in Indonesia so far. The hope of the birth of a new government that can strengthen the agenda of eradicating corruption has been dashed since the earliest point, following the 2024 elections accompanied by various vulgar cheating practices.

"On the one hand, calling for a war against corruption, the other side is intimate with the practice of polarization and chronicism," said ICW.

The signs of the government's lack of seriousness in eradicating corruption are reflected in the presence of the fatt cabinet in the history of reform. The number of ministries previously 34, swelled to 48 ministries with 56 deputy ministers. From this figure, ICW found that as of September 8, 2025, there were 42 deputy ministers who held concurrent positions.

"The fat cabinet is not only followed by a waste of budget, but a big question about the competence and professionalism of cabinet staff due to conflicts of interest that must arise from concurrent positions," wrote ICW.

Another policy that is also indicated to deny the promise to eradicate KKN is budget efficiency. A total of IDR 306.69 trillion of public funds were cut. This policy, said the government, was carried out so that state money was channeled for things that were right on target.

However, instead of being on target, it is believed that this cut is actually diverted by many to finance the president's priority program, namely the free nutritious food project (MBG) and the Anagata Nusantara (Dantara) Power Investment Management Agency, which in turn becomes an instrument to enrich its loyalists and crafts.

The MBG project, which has a budget of IDR 71 trillion in 2025 and will be increased to IDR 355 trillion in 2026, has actually found indications that it only benefits a handful of parties behind the management foundation of the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG).

"For example, there are 27 foundations affiliated with political parties, the majority of which are connected to the Gerindra Party," said ICW.

"Ironically, the non-perturbed jumbo project sacrifices the education budget, the budget that should be to complete the constitutional mandate of compulsory learning," he continued.

Eradication of corruption in Indonesia is very heavy, not only because of the emergence of programs that are vulnerable to failure and potential for corruption, but also prone to presidential intervention. Prabowo became the first president in Indonesian history to grant amnesty, abolition, and rehabilitation to convicted corruption convicts whose cases have not even been inkracht.

Presiden Prabowo memberikan amnesty kepada Sekretaris Jenderal PDI Perjuangan Hasto Kristiyanto dan abolisi kepada Thomas Trikasih Lembong secara bersamaan pada Juli lalu.

After that, the former Minister of Defense also provided rehabilitation to former President Director of PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry, Ira Puspadewi and two other people.

The granting of amnesty and abolition is believed by a number of people to be full of political interests. Not only that, this decision is also a major blow to the corruption eradication agenda in Indonesia.

Prabowo also conferred the title of national hero to the Second President of Indonesia and his former father-in-law, Suharto. The embedding of the title of hero to Suharto means that Prabowo gave the highest appreciation that the state could give to one of the presidents of the corruption and simultaneously increasingly hindered opportunities in the future to thoroughly investigate the Suharto corruption case.

Because, before the title of hero was given, the Prabowo-Gibran government revised MPR Decree No. XI/MPR/1998 concerning State Administrators who are Clean and Free from KKN and removed the name Suharto from Article 4 of this provision. In that article, Suharto's name is explicitly mentioned as a strong basis for thoroughly investigating corruption cases during the New Order.

In the midst of the government's increasingly ignoring the rights of citizens, programs that are vulnerable to corruption, and the lack of check and balance mechanisms by state actors, public critical voices are increasingly suppressed and silenced. Not only activists and critical journalists, students and citizens who dare to speak up are also faced with the law a lot due to their courage.

"This condition further places the new Prabowo-Gibran regime in the top position as a regime that is not pro-democracy and eradicating corruption. Eradicating corruption without critical citizens carrying out the supervisory function by the public will only be a fragile dream," concluded ICW.