The Historical Roots Of Corruption In Indonesia And How Ancient Those Who Are Still Corrupt Today

The band Zeke and the Popo criticizes corruptors in their stage actions (Instagram / @ zekeandthepopo)

JAKARTA - Corruption is a recurring disease of the Indonesian nation. The historical roots of corruption through illegal levies (extortion) go back to when the Nusantara kingdom existed. Subsequently, officials of the Dutch trade association, the VOC followed suit.

As the writer Goenawan Mohamad puts it, "Corruption produces excessive things - money, power, reputation, and cruelty - which excessively harms other people who are in other status and position. For Indonesia, corruption has never been an individual problem. But, corruption is a problem together.

Historically, corruption is a part of action that has existed almost as old as civilization itself. In Indonesia, extortion began to be recorded since the 13th century. Its origin comes from the traditional financing system of the Majapahit Kingdom, Mataram to other kingdoms in the archipelago.

It was through these records that the tracks of those who held certain positions in obtaining large profits began to appear. The historian Ong Hok Ham also explains this. He revealed that extortion was lasting because officials in this traditional kingdom were not paid by the king.

As a result, they must be financially independent. The king only gave land officials and a number of peasants, or rights to collect customs duties. Afterward, the official asked for fines and tribute to the people. It is from this financial source that occupational affairs are financed.

Not only one or two positions are looking for their own salary. Ong Hok Ham noted that starting from the position of minister in the palace, regent, irrigation supervisor, butcher, resident registrar, tax collector, village head, and so on, have been independent in finance.

In fact, the king himself was actually included in this system. This is because a king receives a portion of the people's tribute given by officials. However, the amount given was relatively small. There is still much greater tribute that goes into the private pockets of officials.

“In our history there are instances where a subordinate can entertain his king in a more luxurious manner than the king himself entertains his guests. Or the tax collector can underestimate the servants of the highest Kareton, as well as the ministers, even the princes, because their income far exceeds their income - and they all owe him, "said Ong Hok Ham in the book Wahyu yang Hilang, Negeri yang Shakang (2018).

Kala Dutch East Indies

The habit of extortion became more durable when the system of forced cultivation (cultuur stelsel) was inaugurated by the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies, Johannes van den Bosch (1830-1833) in 1830. This regulation obliged each village to set aside a portion of its land for planting export commodities, especially coffee, sugar cane, and tea. This policy has become a fertile ground for the most intense extortion to take place.

"It can be said that the Cultural Stelsel era was a period of the most intense 'extortion' action on the one hand, channeling millions of guilders to the Dutch State treasury and fattening up the regents. Meanwhile, the common people became increasingly emaciated and destitute. Strangely enough, the people at that time remained silent, not wanting to tell their plight to ask for relief. Everything is carried out in full obedience, "said Soegeng Reksodihardjo in Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo (2012).

In addition, the regents themselves seemed to have only turned a blind eye to the suffering and misery of the people. They are only competing to extort the people to be praised as a good regent and given a service star by the colonizers, while still perpetuating extortion.

As has been revealed by Multatuli or Eduard Douwer Dekker in his legendary novel Max Havelaar (1860). Through this novel, Multatuli then exposed the cruelty of the native landlords and Dutch colonialism.

The collapse of the VOC

The extortion perpetrated by the VOC's trading partners was no less great than the corrupt Bumiputra officials. The VOC at that time only provided nominal wages, only binding money.

A Governor of the North Coast of Java, for example, is only paid 80 guilders a month. Therefore, most of them commit fraudulent practices. They must trade for the benefit of their employer, instead they try to trade for their own profit.

According to the narrative of a VOC commissioner, Dirk van Hogendorp (1761-1822), he saw for himself that many of the fees charged by VOC officials came from fines for overweight goods belonging to Chinese and Javanese people, profit from selling opium, prizes -gift and so on.

"Dirk mentioned the types of prizes he received from native officials, regents, for example prizes for appointing new officials, gifts every new year, gifts for the wife of officials who gave birth, levies every time they go to the governor in Semarang, every time they face the Governor General in the Indies. -Dutch, every time they come to the coronation of a newly elected native regent and so on, "said Dirk as quoted by Sri Margana in the book Corruption in Indonesian History Cross (2016).

Apart from price manipulation, VOC officials also sold positions and sold monopolies such as opium, salt and other natural products. As a result, VOC officials were getting richer. Meanwhile, the VOC itself was getting poorer.

This picture can be seen from the Dutch people in the archipelago who often live above luxury. They love to show off, party hard, and are feudal. This attitude grew through the attitude of the governor-generals who were known to be generous and like to party because of the abundance of extortion fees.

For more details regarding the spree of VOC officials, we have reviewed it in the article "The Mad Party and Spree of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies". In the end, history recorded the collapse of the Dutch VOC trading partnership, one of which was due to frequent corruption. VOC officials who were supposed to trade for the sake of their employers worked only for their own gain.

“Right after its dissolution, from 1 January 1800 all the powers, decisions and powers of the VOC were transferred to the Dutch royal authorities, including debts and balances of 134.7 million guilders. Since then, the archipelago has been called the Dutch East Indies, which has been recognized by the world both de jure and de facto, "concluded Miftakhuddin in the book Colonialism: Exploitation and Development Towards Hegemony (2019).