Corrupt Bureaucracies Are Everywhere

 

Jakarta Post. People in “developing countries” complain about corrupt, inefficient bureaucracy.

Indonesia has sent many corrupt politicians to jail, but still scores high on the corruption scale.

 My colleagues and I do our share of complaining and compromising. In a “gift exchange culture” the line between tips, gifts and corruption is blurred. The problems are institutionalized from bottom to top.

For example, the national examination and its 99 percent pass rate, even for remote provinces with very low quality education.

 Schools are under great pressure to pass their students; teachers provide students with exam questions beforehand and coach them on the correct answers; students, who can barely add, end up with high scores in mathematics. Government, teachers and parents, all conspire to corrupt their own children, just so they can get good grades.

It can be hard or easy to get a driver’s license in Indonesia.  One of my students, an excellent driver, could not get a new license when he moved to our province.  He took the driving test six times and failed every time.

But everyone knows you don’t have to be able to drive to get a license.

If Indonesian bureaucracy is corrupted by money and poverty, US bureaucracy is corrupted by fear of the “other”.  Some years ago Farsijana and I waited in line as we applied for her visa in the bunker-like US Embassy in Jakarta.  Ten wealthy, well educated, English-speaking Indonesians ahead of us, were all rejected (after paying hefty application fees). The poor do not even get in the door.

American bureaucracies can be mind boggling.  An American friend once asked me:  “Bernie, do you think you are reasonably intelligent?”

Surprised, I answered, “I guess so.”  She then said, “Don’t you find it terribly difficult just to live in the US?  If an intelligent, well educated person finds it difficult, how do poor and less gifted people even survive?”  Good question.

Sometimes Muslim activists for tolerance and peace cannot get visas to the US. The president of Indonesia’s largest national university told me he was rejecting all invitations to the US as long as there was such dehumanizing treatment of Muslims at US airports.

Not only Muslims have problems.  Tirza and Hanna, our nieces, will be traveling with us to study for a year in the US.  They were rejected on their first applications for visas and had to go through the process three times.  Getting their visas cost us over US$1,000.

Farsijana needs an immigrant visa (green card) so that the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) can legally pay her when she is in the States.

After submitting countless documents with certified translations and paying hundreds of dollars, she was finally approved by the Department of Homeland Security last January.

There are good people who work in bad bureaucracies. And miracles still happen. After more absurd delays than you can imagine, we were informed it was impossible for Farsijana to get her visa before our departure date of June 24. But sympathetic staff in the US Embassy worked hard to push along the process.  Thanks to them, Farsijana’s visa was issued on June 24, just hours before our plane took off.

Bernard Adeney-Risakotta
Yogyakarta