Indonesia Students Lead Anti-Corruption Campaign

ZHANG:
Indonesia hopes to get an early start on fighting corruption by teaching children to be honest. The Asian archipelago is said to be among the most corrupt nations in the world and the Attorney General says honesty campaigns offer hope that the country can change itself.

STORY:
This is an "honesty canteen."

Indonesian students can buy whatever they want - and are trusted that they'll leave the right amount of money behind.

It's all about teaching the next generation the value of honesty in an effort to stop rampant corruption from destroying the country.

The Asian archipelago is said to be among the most corrupt nations in the world and the Attorney General says honesty canteens offer hope the country can change.

[Jasman Simanjuntak, Attorney General Spokesman]:
"There are some 2,711 'Honesty Canteens' in Indonesia. The aim of it is to build honest character because we can only fight corruption with honesty."

And with these students - so far, so good.

[Reza Dipo, Student]:
"I think there have been achievements. We can see that in the last five years there have been many cases revealed and many people have been detained."

In effort to clean up its image, the country has launched a drive saying "no way" to corruption earlier this month.

The anti-corruption campaign has nabbed some high-profile suspects.

This year alone 850 cases - some including members of parliament and business leaders - have been brought to court.

Nearly 275 million (US) dollars of state money has been retrieved.

Last month, a former central bank official was detained in a corruption case that has already claimed the career of former central bank governor.

The leader of Transparency International Malaysia said countries in the region are trying to clean up their images to be seen to be competitive.

[Ramon Navarntnam, Transparency International Malaysia]:
"If you do not change it, the problem gets worse. But what I am trying to emphasize is that anti-corruption become more popular because they say on the WTO, you can get justice, you get free trade but you don't get fair trade, it's unjust, its exploitive.

As another deterrent there's this.

Authorities are proposing to introduce these uniforms for corruption suspects, with the long nose as a reference to Pinocchio, the fabled wooden boy whose nose grew when he told lies.

And the efforts seem to be making an impact, with a recent survey showing that the Indonesian president's popularity has increased since the corruption drive got underway.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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• detained
• parliament
• busines
• leaders

[asholein]

I hope some day all corrupt mentality (not just this kind of corrupt) will be perished.