Anies Will Raise Civil Servant Salaries To Prevent Corruption If Elected As President

Anies Baswedan was met after the US-Indonesia Investment Summit 2023 Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI

JAKARTA - Presidential Candidate (Capres) Anies Baswedan considers the corruption problem in Indonesia to be very serious and needs to be addressed immediately. Anies admitted that he had a move to solve corruption problems in Indonesia.

According to him, the most possible way is to strengthen the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and ensure that governance runs well by increasing the salaries of civil servants (PNS).

"What we want to echo here is to ensure that good governance. We don't just need to strengthen the KPK, which is already good, but we have to really seriously change the way we eradicate corruption," said Anies at the US-Indonesia Investment Summit 2023 event at the Mandarin ORiental Hotel Jakarta, Tuesday, October 24.

According to Anies, there are 3 sources that can cause corruption. The first is corruption because of the need. Second, corruption occurs because there is greed, and the third is corruption because of the system.

Regarding the aspect of need, Anies observed the phenomenon of corruption that often occurs in government agencies/bodies. For this reason, Anies will raise the salary of civil servants. This was done when he was Governor of DKI Jakarta.

"There are many government employees who use their salaries or their monthly salaries as their annual salaries so that they cannot survive, and this needs to be overcome. We are trying to do that in Jakarta now. Jakarta Government employees are made equal to employees in the private sector. So, small corruption that must be carried out by people on a daily basis can be overcome," he said.

Next, corruption is due to greed. Anies agreed to strengthen the KPK's authority. Then, corruption is caused by the system, Anies will reform the justice system in Indonesia.

Furthermore, Anies assessed that these three methods would absolutely be carried out so that Indonesia would be free from corrupt practices. He said there needs to be firm leadership in the future to eradicate corruption.

"This requires clear political will from the top leadership, and if Indonesia wants to start its journey to become a more advanced country, good governance needs to be improved. The practice of corruption must be dealt with seriously," he concluded.