Pay your tax

Official: Pay your tax, its compulsory... Shame on you! (Money bag reads: Tax revenue)

The government's campaign to convince people to pay income tax suffered another blow with the arrest last week of tax official Dhana Wiyatmika, who earned the dubious honor of being dubbed the "new Gayus" for allegedly squirreling away more than $11 million in various bank accounts, symbolising how hard-working, tax-paying citizens are being cheated while the rich collude with corrupt officials to avoid tax.

Kompas - February 29, 2012

Self-pity

Man: Yes... but when are you going to give me some thought Mr?

With fresh allegations appearing almost daily in the media implicating senior Democrat Party figures in a corruption scandal surrounding former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, and the party's electoral fortunes in 2014 looking gloomier by the day, Democrat Party patron President Yudhoyono appears to be wallowing in self-pity and effectively impotent in the face of an open revolt within the ranks of his own party.

Kompas - February 25, 2012

Angelina Sondakh

Former Miss Indonesia Angelina Sondakh, a legislator from President Yudhoyono's ruling Democrat Party and suspect in a high-profile corruption scandal, angered millions who watched her recent court testimony in the trial of former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin when she insisted she knew nothing about a BlackBerry messenger conversation with corruption convict Mindo Rosalina Manulang, claiming she never owned a BlackBerry before 2010, despite abundant evidence to the contrary.

Kompas - February 24, 2012

Economic growth

While last month's announcement by Fitch Ratings that Indonesia's national sovereign rating had been raised to investment level is good news for the richest top 10% of the population who benefit from the country's robust economic growth rate of 6.7%, Health Ministry data shows that the percentage of children experiencing stunted growth as a result of malnutrition reached a staggering 35.6% of children below the age of 5, a total of 26.7 million children.

Kompas - February 22, 2012

Air Force One

Air Force One: Republic of Brokers

In a nod to the plane used by the US president, the government will spend $US138 million on a presidential jet to be called "Indonesian Air Force One". The state railway company meanwhile, whose $90 million annual budget is barely enough to maintain existing networks, announced it will install concrete balls to rake over the top of trains in Jakarta in the latest attempt to deter roof riders, a common practiced during peak hours when limited train services are crammed beyond capacity with poor working-class commuters.

Kompas - February 18, 2012

Get the job finished...

Hand: Get the job finished...

Arm band reads: Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Safe reads: Corruption cases.

An recent survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) found that public trust in the KPK's has dwindled to an all time low of only 38.5%, which the LSI blamed on the many unresolved corruption cases. Critics contend that the KPK's work is being hamstrung by vested political interests at all levels of the government, legislature and judiciary.

Kompas - February 15, 2012

Love affair

Street signs read: Road with no end, Comedy St, Law & Justice St, Dead End St, Road to Hell, Malang Apple Rd, Washington Apple Rd, Politics St, Road to Heaven.

Allegations by former Democrat Party treasurer and corruption suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin have raised questions about the impartiality of a Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigation into fellow party member and legislator Angelina Sondakh after Nazaruddin revealed that she is having a love affair with a KPK investigator.

Kompas - February 11, 2012

One drop of indigo

1st Man: One drop of indigo stains the whole cauldron of milk...

2nd Man: Or was the milk already damaged to begin with.

Quoting from a proverb about spoilt milk on the weekend, a defensive President Yudhoyono insisted that despite continuing revelations implicating senior Democrat Party members in a corruption scandal surrounding former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, a few bad apples in the party doesn't mean the whole barrel is rotten, adding that party members must resist "temptations" and "invitations" to be corrupt.

Kompas - February 8, 2012

High on drugs

Man: How dare they embezzle money so shamelessly!

Kid: Perhaps they're high on drugs Dad! (alluding to a series of recent drug cases involving state officials)

According to an Indonesian Corruption Watch study last month, Rp2.13 trillion ($238.6 million) was lost to corruption in 2011, despite the methods used being easy to detect. The most prevalent means was embezzlement, followed by bogus projects and travel costs, misappropriations then markups.

Kompas - February 4, 2012

Train without a driver

Relax... we're used to riding a train without a driver, right...

Observers say that a spate of violent incidents, such as last month's torching of a regent's office in Bima by angry local people, is due to an almost total absense of leadership on the part of the government that has eroded public trust in the state – which people see as defending the interests of the rich at the expense of ordinary people's rights – leaving people with no recourse but to take the law into their own hands.

Kompas - February 1, 2012