Indonesian Fear Factor

It’s not about hanging on a rope tied to a helicopter or eating animal bowels and insects. It isn’t about ghost either….

This is the story. I have a younger brother. He works at a government institution. His job is auditing cash flow of other government institutions. Last month he got duty to dig any financial document of a kabupaten (it’s like county) in his province.

I called him several times during that period. I asked him whether he had problem or not in doing his job. He said that the job was easy. Collecting documents to be audited by a team, that will judge cash flow of the government institution is well organized or not, was a piece of cake. Easy. But…there is another problem. It’s kind of common when a team of a higher institution dig information of a lower institution, the people of that institution being observed are freak out. Especially when they knew that their mistake would be found out by the auditor. They will do anything to satisfy the auditor. They’ll bring food and merchandise for the team (it’s like UPETI, isn’t it?), pay their hotel and transportation….even they’ll bring the team some money. That’s right…they will try to bribe the team. For my brother, it’s the hardest thing in doing his job. He CAN NOT accept that kind of money. I told him that is our fear factor. That is INDONESIAN FEAR FACTOR.

This is the reason….It’s kind of a test to our dignity and our faith because it easy for us to SAY no to corruption but when we face the situation where other people give us some money (hey, it’s a lot of money...) to influence our decision about their interest in an institution…it’s HARD to say NO…especially when your personal financial is in trouble. Maybe your wife need to go to beauty center, your kids need to pay their school fee or maybe you are dying to get money for your wedding…or anything…IT IS HARD TO REFUSED THAT KIND MONEY …And based on my brother and my experience, most people will FAIL to say NO to bribing money. For instance: in a team of four people, only one will survive in the struggling to refuse bribing. Wish I was wrong.

Alhamdulillah my brother proved that FEAR (to refuse bribing money) IS NOT HIS FACTOR. He was inspired by a Hollywood movie about bad cops called ‘American Gangster’. But it’s still long way to go for his struggle to make his institution clean. We need your pray…

One question…If he can keep his faith…can I do that same thing?…can you?...