Over the last three weeks, the surge in COVID cases, hospitalisations and deaths in Indonesia has dominated all media and political discussions. He is the author of several books on Indonesia including Decentralization and Its Discontents: An Essay on Class, Political Agency and National Perspective in Indonesian Politics (ISEAS 2014) and An Introduction to the Politics of the Indonesian Union Movement (ISEAS 2019) and the editor of Continuity and Change after Indonesia’s Reforms: Contributions to an Ongoing Assessment (ISEAS 2019).

* Max Lane is Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Reformasi Dikorupsi (Reformation is being corrupted) is now the battle-cry of dissident groups who are trying to revive the massive anger against corruption which had brought down the Soeharto regime. Such developments will provide further impetus for social dissent, with corruption eradication as a key ideological plank for political opposition in the country. There has also been public concern over alleged price gouging for COVID medicines and tests. There is an ongoing trial of a cabinet minister accused of corrupt mishandling of COVID welfare funds. Public anger over endemic corruption is being aggravated by emerging signs of graft in the handling of the COVID crisis.Recent statements by a senior minister (Mahfud, Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security), who tried to rationalise the spread of corruption due to loss of central authority under democratic government, only served to add fuel to the public disenchantment. Scepticism over the government’s resolve to eradicate corruption was further stoked by the critical coverage of the KPK saga by Tempo magazine (and its affiliated newspaper) and the documentary film The End Game.

The appointment of a new KPK leadership was soon followed by the removal of 51 KPK officers, some of whom were pursuing prominent corruption cases. A controversial new law in 2020 converted KPK employees to civil servants, thus raising doubts about their autonomy in conducting corruption investigations. There is growing public discontent and anger driven by the perception that the Indonesian political elites are colluding to weaken the KPK to promote their own vested interests.While the COVID crisis continues to dominate political discourse in Indonesia, policies affecting the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have kept corruption salient in public consciousness.

Students hold a placard depicting an epitaph symbolising the death of the country’s corruption eradication commission, during a rally in front of the parliament building in Jakarta on 1 October 2019, demanding lawmakers to revoke a revised anti-corruption law.

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