New Indonesian Website Names and Shames Corrupt Officials

(Wall Street Journal) - Hoping to impart a sense of shame among officials and other individuals who have been convicted of corruption, Indonesian activists and journalists recently launched a website publicizing their names and crimes.

Indonesia regularly ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in Transparency International’s closely watched Corruption Perception Index, and critics say graft remains rampant even though the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998 ushered in an era of wide-ranging reforms.

Now, Korupedia.org aims to be an online encyclopedia of corruption through which anyone can access details about corruption cases and individuals found guilty by courts, said Ratna Dasahasta, the web site’s chief editor. Not all convictions make it to the news, and few people have access to court documents, she said, which means residents need an easily accessible clearinghouse of who did what and when.

“We are concerned that many people convicted of corruption show no remorse and act as if they didn’t do anything wrong. After being released they regularly appear on TV talking about current issues and are courted by prominent figures,” Ms. Dasahasta said.

“This shows that corruption is seen as something ordinary and is not something to be ashamed of,” she added. “The list is some kind of social sanction for those people.”

Former cabinet ministers, governors, legislators, civil servants and businessmen have all been convicted by special corruption courts in recent years as part of attempts by successive post-Suharto governments to fight the scourge.

In one of the most recent cases, a court in East Kalimantan province convicted a former district chief of defrauding the state of seven billion rupiah ($742,000) and sentenced him to two years in prison this week.

So far the website has put online 120 names of people convicted of corruption and their photographs, and the list is expected to grow.

Administrators of the site are poring over documents from court verdicts from 900 corruption cases reviewed by the Supreme Court, Ms. Dasahasta said.

Founded by Teten Masduki, the former chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, and several journalists, the site has been viewed by more than one million visitors since it went live on June 12 and survived attempts by hackers to take it down, she said.

“We don’t know who the people who tried to hack the website are but obviously they are unhappy with its content,” she said.

The website also allows readers to check whether candidates running in myriad regional elections in the sprawling archipelago of 240 million people are on the list.