still learning..

Investigate This!

Yesteday we had the second lecture on Investigative Journalism. When we were told to give out some examples of cases that can be investigated in a journalistic way, all of my classmates came up with these remarkable ideas about cheap airlines that use cheap spare parts from the black markets and might jeopardize the safety of their passengers, or charity organizations that use the donations for the benefits of their executive directors. We all thought about any dishonest things that any organizations might do, or anything that might detriment the public.

Then I started to think about such situations that might happen in my own country. Then I realized, in Indonesia, you can’t help not being skeptical about everything.

If you’re a foreigner, you will be swindled as soon as you get out of the airport (assuming you’re coming there by plane). You will get a bunch of unregistered taxi drivers who offer to give you a lift, without turning on the meter, and just ask for an unbelievably high price to go to a place 5 minute away from there.

When you want to have a taste of Indonesian food from traditional food stalls on the side of the road, make sure you go with a local who knows about prices, or else, those innocent-looking food stalls will charge you more money than you should pay.

If all these don’t irritate you (or probably you just haven’t realized that you’ve been spending more than you’re supposed to) and you decide to stay a bit longer there, and you’re required to go to an immigration office to get your visa extended, don’t think you will get a straightforward process in doing it. There are loads of bureaucracies you have to go through, not to mention all the “money under the table” that you have to be willing to spare to all those government officials in order to get your papers done in a timely manner. If you’re not keen on spending all those “expenses”, be prepared to wait forever to get all your business done, if not at all.

These things happen not only to foreigners, but to us, the local people too. When I applied for my driving license for the first time, as soon as I stepped into the place, I was greeted by an officer, who, instead of taking me through the official procedure, was explaining to me how I can pay a sum of money and get my driving license straight away and not having to do any tests at all.

After I got my driving license, I got caught by the police several times, because of speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, driving through the red light, etc. But, I never have to go to court or anything. I only had to pay the policemen who caught me at that time, give him some amount of money, and left without any ticket or records of me breaking any traffic rules.

If you’re doing business in Indonesia, especially with any governmental bodies, keep in mind to have an allowance for “bribe money” if you want your business to run smoothly.

When the government is having a project that involves contracting a private company, the winning bidder of the contract is the one who’s “generous” enough to the government officials.

Isn’t this what they call “corruption”? Yes! Isn’t this costing the public more than it’s supposed to? No doubt about it!

But, in Indonesia, corruption is normal. It’s a part of our daily life. If you look at the balanced account of any companies there, they must have a “bribe money” account under a more acceptable name, like, “marketing expenses” or something like that.

Anyway, it makes me think about the module of Investigative Journalism I’m taking. I started to wonder whether it’s going to be much use back home. It’s either I’ll be a very busy investigative journalist because of too much corruption and collusions, or I’ll be desperately jobless because there’s nothing to investigate as the public already knows about the corruption and collusion and decides to live with it.

posted by DyaH @ 9:07 am