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High level of religiosity does not guarantee graft-free Indonesia: Survey
Jakarta Globe - November 16, 2017
"The meaning of religion and rituals for Indonesians has a significant impact only to the stance toward corruption, not to corrupt behavior," Kuskridho Ambardi, LSI director, said in a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday (15/11).
LSI conducted the survey between Aug. 16 and 22, which involved 1,540 respondents across 34 provinces. The survey used multi-stage random sampling and has a margin error of 2.6 percent.
The results showed that 74.9 percent of Indonesian Muslims are very or quite pious, of which 82.9 percent often take religion into consideration when making important decisions.
However, 30.4 percent of respondents consider it reasonable to speed up the process when dealing with public institutions through graft – either by giving money or gifts. While respondents who disagree with graft account for 63.2 percent of the total number surveyed.
The survey also showed that 35.2 percent of respondents tolerate collusion practices, 44.6 percent view it as unethical and 9.2 percent consider it a crime.
Kuskridho said the findings show that corrupt behavior can be displayed by religious persons because religiosity affects only normative levels.
Azyumardi Azra, an influential Muslim scholar and former rector of Jakarta's Syarif Hidayatullah at the State Islamic University (UIN), said the dissonance between high levels of religiosity and corrupt behavior occurs because there is a split personality – many people believe and worship God but they do not implement the values of religion in their everyday life.
There are many corrupt individuals in Indonesia who assume they can "cleanse their sins" by doing good deeds, though the two acts are not at all related, he added.
"It is too naive if we expect that corruption can be eradicated by increasing the level of religiosity," Azyumardi said.
He suggested the two largest Indonesian Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, step in to resolve the society's split personality.
"There still needs to be an anti-corruption campaign from the pulpit. Preachers and missionaries should be given training regarding this matter," Azyumardi added.
According to the 2016 results of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, Indonesia ranks 90th out of 176 countries, on par with countries such as Liberia and Colombia.
Source: http://jakartaglobe.id/news/high-level-religiosity-not-guarantee-graft-free-indonesia-survey/.
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