Author: Jacob Ereste
Freelance Journalist
Corruption in the procurement of Laptops for educational facilities in Indonesia, from the standard price of IDR 1.7 million to IDR 2.6 million which was later claimed to be worth IDR 10 million with a budget value of IDR 11 trillion from the government, meaning the amount of value that was corrupted could reach IDR 8 million per laptop. It is said that the fruits of corruption from the laptops were divided equally like dividing a watermelon with the foreman who only gave orders and cues.
From the IDR 11 trillion, if divided by IDR 10 million, then the number of laptops will be obtained as much as IDR 11 trillion divided by IDR 10 million will get 1,100,000 laptops. Then the funds that evaporated because they were stolen were no less than Rp 1,100,000 times Rp 8,000,000 to a total of Rp 8,800,000,000 (eight point eight trillion rupiah) truly terrible and depraved corruption behavior in our country that has gone beyond the limit. Moreover, criminal acts of corruption in Indonesia – especially in the last 10 years – are clearly visible and clearly controlled by operators whose expertise far exceeds the greatness of the syndicate or the strongest mafia leader and is structured and systemic and massively plunders all sectors and fields – institutions – in all agencies.
Therefore, corruptors who are controlled by government official operators, starting from project budgets to import and mining traditions and oil, gas to drug trafficking and online gambling need to be subject to severe sanctions with a maximum of the death penalty and all their wealth confiscated to be returned to the people. Because all sources of funds that are used for corruption come from the people and are intended to be distributed to the people.
The discourse to determine that corruptors must be sentenced to death and all their assets confiscated — especially for public officials — must be carried out immediately and can no longer be entrusted to the legislative body to ensure its implementation, because they themselves are not a few who are involved, such as the massacre of CSR funds from Bank Indonesia which now seems to have sunk, because it seems to be frozen.
The fuel adulteration case and a number of other cases that have clearly named a number of officials in the trial, also seem to be protected, because it seems that they will drag in a number of other high-ranking officials who are still strongly gripping this country.
Meanwhile, perpetrators of corruption and other economic crimes in the regions, seem to be used as a kind of diversion, so that the rottenness at the central level that is spread throughout all executive, legislative and judicial institutions still seems to be part of the business transactions that are increasingly making the people restless.
Then is it true that all cases that appear to be used as a tug-of-war game between law enforcement officers so that the patience and awareness of the people are stuck at zero until they are forced to express their anger in various forms that are very unpredictable in form and risk for this country?
It seems that a better and wiser choice of attitude is not to let the people themselves have to take action, because the actions of the angry people will cause people’s distrust of the government which is difficult to heal. Because the consequences of the people’s anger that is difficult to control can also cause deep wounds that spread wildly into a disaster with very great destructive power, until later it is more difficult to recover.
Therefore, a kind of consolation that can make the people’s hearts calm in the increasingly heavy and severe economic scourge today, action against perpetrators of corruption, arrogance of public officials and abuse of power and arbitrary exercise of their authority needs to be taken immediately to convince that the government really wants to protect and prioritize the interests of the people. Because only then can the people’s empathy and concern put concern and tolerance for the government’s efforts and efforts to cleanse the uprightness and nobility of this country be welcomed by the people, even though they still have to endure hunger that has not been resolved.
Kohot Village, June 5, 2025
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