Indonesia Highlights: ‘Corruption Scandal is So Much Crazier Now than The New Order Era’: Indonesian Senior Minister | Indonesia, China Hold Inaugural Meeting of Bilateral High-Level Dialog in Guizhou

KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said that the country’s corruption scandal nowadays is much worse than the New Order era as today’s corruption is increasingly widespread and done by individuals.

Indonesia and China held their inaugural meeting of the High-Level Dialogue on Cooperation Mechanism in Guizhou Province on Saturday, June 5. The meeting, among others, discussed matters on priority, trade, economic, and investment cooperation projects.

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‘Corruption Scandal is So Much Crazier Now than The New Order Era’: Indonesian Senior Minister

Indonesia’s Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said that the country’s corruption scandal nowadays is much worse than the New Order era as today’s corruption is increasingly widespread.

“Today’s corruption is more rampant than the New Order era. I will not rectify my statement. Today’s corruption scandal is so much crazier than the New Order era. I’m not referring to the stolen amounts but rather the presence of widespread corruption,” Mahfud said during a discussion with rectors throughout Yogyakarta on Saturday, June 5.

He explained that during President Soeharto’s New Order government, the practice of corruption, collusion, and nepotism, or locally known KKN, was massive. However, he argued, at that time no members of the House of Representatives, government officials, and law enforcement officers were involved in corruption cases.

“Don’t you remember at that time, there were no corruption cases against members of the House of Representatives, judges, governors, local government officials, regents as they were afraid of doing so,” Mahfud said.

“In the past, it was coordinated corruption. In my dissertation in 1993, the government built a corporatism network by establishing organizations in all institutions,” he explained.

The organization will later decide who will be the leader and who will get the projects. Mahfud said the corruption cases during the New Order era were coordinated. Unlike nowadays where corruption scandals were done individually.

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/06/05/20432301/mahfud-md-sekarang-korupsi-lebih-gila-daripada-zaman-orde-baru.