If we were to attend a puppet show in Semarang, Indonesia, organized as part of the World Anti-Corruption Day in December 2006 by the Committee for the Control of Corruption, Collusion and Protectionism in Central Java, we would see a curious fantasy: the world of animals familiar with corruption. ¹

The plot of the play is quite transparent. In the previously peaceful forest where His Majesty the Tiger rules, everything is set in motion with the appearance of a dog official. The "corrupt" dog spreads corruption in all instances, including in the government of His Majesty the Tiger. To Tiger himself, he hands an empty receipt with a request to sign it. The lord of the forest is against corruption, he refuses to sign a blank form, because this would mean for him to condone an illegal action. His response: "I won't sign it. We do everything openly, " the audience greeted with applause...

Paper animals in the hands of puppeteers become a visual tool of the anti-corruption campaign. The press comment on the performance was not very optimistic: "Only in a puppet show can you overcome corruption."

In the country, gossip on this topic does not end for years. International monitoring organizations annually assign Indonesia the "title" of one of the most corrupt states in Asia and around the world. In the article "The phenomenon of corruption in Indonesia"² political scientist S. Sukur notes that for the Indonesian people, corruption is "a matter of course with a taste of permissiveness." Bribery flourishes among officials of all stripes, in legal bodies, and throughout society.

Government bodies, changing their composition, from year to year issue laws and regulations, demonstrating evidence of the seriousness of the authorities ' intentions in eradicating corruption through judicial procedure. Various commissions have been set up to combat the practice of bribery, monopoly collusion, protectionism and nepotism. There are many commissions and laws, and corruption in the" land of commissions " is rampant in all sectors.

After the overthrow of the dictatorial regime, Indonesia has been undergoing reforms for more than 10 years. Unfortunately, we can say that corruption is still flourishing. Under the current rule of Bambang President Susilo Yudhoyono, the situation with corruption is even getting worse, says Febri Dianshah3, an analyst at the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Those who once fought for reforms have become officials, politicians, and rulers, and now compete to plunder public funds in order to get rich themselves and enrich their loved ones.⁴ Officials attach their relatives and friends to warm lucrative positions, not caring about their professional aptitude. On the ground, the authorities themselves set additional tariffs, and such bribery has become commonplace for officials and familiar to citizens.

In 2010, there were highly publicized court campaigns in Indonesia involving bribery in the appointment of the Deputy Governor of the central Bank of Indonesia, corruption in the General Directorate of Taxes and among mayors and heads of district administrations.

In the summer of the same year, Indonesian President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono signed a decree to check 150 district heads suspected of bribery according to the police for 6 years. The check continues.

A deal reached the court with the Bojonegoro District prosecutor in East Java to substitute a long-term prison sentence for a very decent fee in Indonesian rupees.

In early June 2011, the Supreme Court of Indonesia issued a decision to remove a judge found guilty of bribery by the anti-corruption Commission5. The "servant of the law" was caught red-handed while receiving a large bribe. The Commission found 39 cases of release of criminals for bribes. Considerable sums of money in various currencies were confiscated from the judge.

Public discontent is expressed in public speeches, prose and poetry by professional and non-professional writers. "The web of corruption cannot be broken only by people from the government, anti-corruption commissions, the International Control Commission and other bodies. The struggle should be waged by the whole society from the top to the bottom, "writes public figure Gina Ismagianti on her website as part of the 2011 public campaign" Let's put a barrier to corruption and bribes in Indonesia!"

In Indonesia, many poets are distinguished by their active citizenship. Poet Rosni Idham from Aceh, a province in North Sumatra, in the poem "When in this country"⁶ writes:

  
  
 When, when there  
  will be no cries of " Thief! 
  Hold on!",  
  They will end the bribe to the roots  
  And drunkenness will all be outlived?  
 ...When in my country, when  
  the Robber stops robbing,  
  And the ruler, the soul is empty,  
  Renounces the rights of trampling?  
 When will the Fatherland break  
  the Criminal laws of the jungle,  
 And justice without barriers  
  of Corruption extinguish the embers? 
  
 

The poet Heri Latif addresses the society, demanding punishment of bribe takers up to the point of execution, in his poem "To the Fighters against corruption" ⁷:

  
  
 Comrade, I will ask you one question.  
 Will our world be fair in any 
  way?  
 The grabber doesn't care about this 
   stuff.  
 And the thief is happy and joking.  
 A crazy era for people.  
 A robber in a tie, and the look 
   of a saint  
  Stealing rice from small children,  
  a poor child and a sick person.  
 The land of thieves, its king lies.  
 Take everything down to the discounted 
   cent!  
 Where is the cure for theft? 
  Tell me!  
 "The Chinese recipe is missing 
  .  
 In the fight against corruption, we 
   must all rally our ranks together  
  
   in a combative way.  
 The cause of poverty in all its glory- 
 From the power of rodents that harm 
   the house. 
  
 

  
  
 A line of poetry poems of struggle,  
 Peasants, workers, unemployed 
  remembering,  
 Ballad of a handful of rice from fate.  
 Half-starved today,  
  .  
 There is absolutely no point 
  up freedoms.  
 The spirit of slavery reigns in the country.  
 And the lord of the palace-without all 
  worries,  
 Politics in the shadows, in the young lady's 
  brotherhood.  
 Do not hoard the illusions of the era,  
 Root out corruption mercilessly,  
 not transgress Your decency.  
 With the soul of the people, act 
  carefully.  
 And for you, my beloved country,  
 unite our  
  ,We  
 give all our strength in full.  
 And we will be appreciated by history. 
  
 

The title of Jose Rizal Manua's poem "Poems about Corruption, Patronage and Nepotism" ⁸ speaks for itself:

  
  
 Corruption, patronage 
   and nepotism  
  hinder the movement of the economy.  
 Family and relatives,close 
   kinship,  
  Help each other everywhere in everything 
  .  
 The octopus spreads its tentacles everywhere 
    
  And plays with pawns everywhere,  
  Twining and squeezing hundreds of thousands 
   of arms and legs,  
 Although people speak unflatteringly about it.  
 And nepotism is deeply rooted 
  .  
 Balding patronage 
   over the years.  
 Corruption is hard, but it works 
   easily.  
 Everything is in plain sight, you are the witnesses.  
 The law is twisted there, deception reigns here 
  .  
 The leak is there, and there's 
   a postscript here.  
 There is embezzlement of funds - 
   a loyal clan will not betray you.  
 The robber believes that there is almost no 
   risk.  
 And the abyss of life is getting wider and wider 
   every day.  
 Poverty spread out over the whole  
   expanse.  
 When will we turn the necks of all vices 
  ,  
 When will we put an end to poverty 
   and grief?! 
  
 

Poet Ruslan Nolovidjoyo throws accusations in the face of a corrupt official in the poem "The Corrupt Man" ⁹:

  
  
 Hey, corrupt official... so ashamed  
 All the people for your deeds.  
 You look cheeky, 
  carefree, 
 With you the country has a shameful 
  reputation.  
 Hey, bribe taker, you're quirky,  
 smart, you're talented with a sly  
  tongue, 
 mow everything down, you're talkative,  
 're familiar  
  .  
 You have a set of tricks in your hands.  
 Openly robbing the  
  .  
 For greedy new blanks  
 use the edge of the jungle, 
  forest.  
 You are  
 day 
  after day.  
 Everywhere your voice,like a megaphone,  
 Thunders, leading you on its own path.  
 You're making money  
 no one else knows yet.  
 They are from all the people's sweats,  
 From underpaid human 
  labor.  
 Usually you are always neat,  
 But you have become the object of abuse 
  whole country,  
 People without employment,  
 Sick children, they  
   so much.  
 Your forbidden wealth  
 doesn't make any sense.  
 When   
 the prison bars are waiting for you.  
 Know that people are already sick  
 of the damage you are doing to society 
  .  
 He'll get even angrier, maybe.  
 You will drink the cup of punishment.  
 Poems like light satire.  
 Where's the axe?  
 Budget theft without barriers.  
 Is the end of corruption coming? 
  
 

Further, the poet already expresses his thoughts in prose in the article "Why a person is subject to corruption", including about raising children in the spirit of rejection of bribery, when parents are an example for their children and bring up in them character traits that are incompatible with this phenomenon.

Even a certified professional is unlikely to get a job in the usual honest way in Indonesia. Aceh poet Herrius Suprapto notes in one of his poems ¹⁰:

  
  
 Now the diploma will not give you a job.  
 Nepotism and nepotism 
  important.  
 A diploma is something away from life 
  ,  
 and money is a pass for everyone who 
  stupid. 
  
 

Is it possible to end corruption in Indonesia? In addition to commissions and the police, even psychological scientists are involved in the study of the problem. Zainal Abidin, an associate professor at the Faculty of Psychology, writes in one of the articles: "Psychologically, COR-

A corrupt official tends to feel uncomfortable and exposed, because he knows that he is being branded a bribe taker behind his back. " ¹¹ This is the reason why corrupt officials rarely act alone. They almost always "work" as a group, creating a mafia network.

In conclusion, we will quote Sobron Aidit's poem "A Story about Corruption" ¹²:

  
  
 In my country, corruption 
  in the stories, 
 In the expanses of the sky, as well as on earth. 
 Everyone and everything in the  
   is known  
 enough cracks in corruption.  
 Especially for higher-ranking persons  
 convenient to apply the position.  
 It is easier for them to get out of the  
    
 and use the power to  
  .  
 Everyone  
  .  
 The people are always at work and in 
  business,  
 get  
  ,  
 fish, kerosene. Hearth in the houses.  
 Corruption has occurred 
  many times.  
 Is it possible to eradicate it?  
 It is tenacious, it is clear to everyone.  
 Hapuga is not easy to catch.  
 Such people know the gaps,the cracks,  
 behind them, the steep  
  .  
 It is necessary to fight for a clear goal,  
 path to victory, there is  
  . 
  
 

It is impossible not to cite literally two more lines from the poem "In Numbers"by Padang Sastri, a poetess from the city of West Sumatra, ¹³ indicating the fighting spirit of Indonesian anti-corruption fighters:

  
  
 We will fight, our fighting spirit 
    
 , We will loudly declare: 
   "Down with it!" 
  
 

Translated from the Indonesian by Yu. I. NOSKOV

¹ Suara Merdeka, 10.12.2006.

² Sukuris, 01.02.2011.

³ Lampung Post, 28.01.2010.

⁴ Tempo, 20.10.2010.

⁵ Lampung Post, 05.06.2011.

⁶ Serambi, 17.02.2008.

⁷ Sesatpikir, 11.12.2009.

⁸ Komunitas Puisi, 05.08.2009.

⁹ Facebook, 24.12.2009.

¹⁰ Serambi, 27.12.2006.

¹¹ Kompas, 15.07.2008.

¹² Surat dari Holland, 01.2002.

¹³ Sastra Indonesia Raya, 26.09.2010.

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