Is Indonesia Bound for the BRICs?Ho

Is Indonesia Bound for the BRICs?
How Stalling Reform Could Hold Jakarta Back
By Karen Brooks


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Indonesia is in the midst of a yearlong debut on the world stage. This past spring and summer, it hosted a series of high-profile summits, including for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation in May, the World Economic Forum on East Asia the same month, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July. With each event, Indonesia received broad praise for its leadership and achievements. This coming-out party will culminate in November, when the country hosts the East Asia Summit, which U.S. President Barack Obama and world leaders from 17 other countries will attend. As attention turns to Indonesia, the time is ripe to assess whether Jakarta can live up to all the hype.

A little over ten years ago, during the height of the Asian financial crisis, Indonesia looked like a state on the brink of collapse. The rupiah was in a death spiral, protests against President Suharto's regime had turned into riots, and violence had erupted against Indonesia's ethnic Chinese community. The chaos left the country -- the fourth largest in the world, a sprawling archipelago including more than 17,000 islands, 200 million people, and the world's largest Muslim population -- without a clear leader.

Today, Indonesia is hailed as a model democracy and is a darling of the international financial community. The Jakarta Stock Exchange has been among the world's top performers in recent years, and some analysts have even called for adding Indonesia to the ranks of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). More recent efforts to identify the economic superstars of the future -- Goldman Sachs' "Next 11," PricewaterhouseCoopers' "E-7" (emerging 7), The Economist's "CIVETS" (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa), and Citigroup's "3G" -- all include Indonesia.

To be sure, Indonesia's track record has been impressive. In just a few short years following Suharto's 1998 fall from power, Indonesia transformed from a tightly controlled authoritarian system to one of the most vibrant democracies on earth. The elections in 1999 were widely praised as a triumph of democracy; the military stayed on the sidelines, and independent civil-society groups and the media blossomed in the run-up to the polls. With sweeping political and fiscal decentralization, Jakarta devolved real power and resources to the country's hundreds of districts and municipalities. The government created new, independent political institutions to provide for additional checks and balances, including a constitutional court, a judicial commission, and a corruption eradication commission (known by its Indonesian acronym, KPK). An ambitious constitutional reform formalized a presidential system and established a one-man, one-vote process. With no mechanism to filter the results (as the Electoral College does in the United States), Indonesia's voting system is among the most democratic in the world.

The country's economic turnaround has been no less dramatic. In 1998, Indonesia's economy suffered a contraction of more than 13 percent. Since then, it has grown at an average rate of more than five percent per year, including 4.5 percent in 2009, when GDPs in much of the rest of the world shrank. This year, the Indonesian economy is expected to grow 6.5 percent. Indonesia's debt-to-GDP ratio has declined from a high of 100.3 percent in 2000 to 26 percent today, which compares favorably to those of the country's neighbors: Malaysia's is 54 percent, Vietnam's is 53 percent, the Philippines' is 47 percent, and Thailand's is 44 percent. Inflation, which spiked to 77 percent in 1998, now hovers just under five percent. The rupiah, which lost over four-fifths of its value that same year, is the strongest it has been since 2004 and is up 31 percent since 2008 alone. Other ASEAN currencies generally appreciated by between 15 and 20 percent in the same period.

Indonesia has also made great strides in improving its security. In 2004, the government negotiated a peace settlement with separatists in the province of Aceh, ending a three-decade-long conflict that claimed thousands of lives. Elsewhere, Indonesian security forces have killed or captured hundreds of Islamist militants and have uncovered and shut down major terrorist hideouts and training camps, including one in Aceh in February 2010 that led to a number of high-profile arrests. The government has also implemented important structural reforms, including the creation of a national counterterrorism agency, tasked with forming and enforcing new domestic security laws.

Against this backdrop, Indonesia has started to play a larger role on the international stage. When the G-20 was established in 2008, Indonesia was the only Southeast Asian nation offered membership. That same year, Indonesia launched the Bali Democracy Forum, a yearly regional conference to promote democracy in Asia. In recent months, the forum has become a platform for Indonesia to share lessons from its own democratic transition with some of Egypt's aspiring democrats.

LOOMING CONSTRAINTS

Yet despite all the fanfare, the Indonesian score contains some decidedly discordant notes. Indonesia's ports are overstretched, its electrical grid is inadequate, and its road system is one of the least developed in the region. These conditions make the Indonesian economy inefficient and will stifle its future growth. In some regions, the price of basic commodities is up to three times as high as on the main island of Java. Meanwhile, manufacturers are squeezed by exorbitant transportation costs, which are higher in Indonesia than in almost every other ASEAN nation. On the World Bank's 2010 Logistics Performance Index, which is based on a worldwide survey of shippers and carriers combined with data on the performance of each country's supply chain, Indonesia ranked 75 out of 155, well below its neighbors.

Jakarta is well aware of these problems, yet it currently spends only half as much on infrastructure development as it did in the 1990s. Seeking to address almost constant criticism on this issue, in May, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a new economic "master plan" with an emphasis on infrastructure projects. He also called for higher infrastructure spending in the 2012 budget. But even this budget would cover only about half of the administration's planned development through 2014. Without the new development, Indonesia will not meet its target of 7-8 percent GDP growth by the same year.

Much of the burden of paving roads and providing power and water nationwide will thus fall to the private sector. However, Indonesia's inadequate regulatory framework and weak enforcement of existing regulations have muted private-sector interest. The absence of meaningful eminent domain regulations has proved particularly problematic; the inability to acquire land has prevented many projects from ever getting off the ground. Bureaucratic chaos at the National Land Agency, where plots are often recorded as being owned by multiple parties, has not helped. Yudhoyono has pledged to tackle these problems, but his credibility on the issue is fading.

Endemic corruption further adds to Indonesia's high-cost economy. At the beginning of his first term, Yudhoyono named combating corruption a top priority. Since then, the KPK has sent dozens of politicians and former government officials to jail. Still, corruption runs deep at all levels of government, since the devolution of power after Suharto's fall brought with it the decentralization of graft. Now, officials from Jakarta down to the village level demand bribes and kickbacks, and such payments no longer ensure that things get done.

A number of high-profile scandals during Yudhoyono's second term have showcased the breadth and depth of the problem. Investigations into the 2008 collapse and subsequent $700 million government bailout of Bank Century, a midsize bank with politically connected depositors, revealed that individuals from all elements of law enforcement -- senior police officers, officials from the attorney general's office, lawyers, judges -- had attempted to profit from the government bailout.

Since then, the police and others have tried to weaken the KPK, including by attempting to frame two sitting members of the commission for, of all things, corruption. The episode paralyzed the KPK for months and made a mockery of Indonesia's judicial system. Although the commission emerged from this episode intact, it has since been focused on lower-profile cases.

Perhaps most damning, the president's own political party has been at the center of an escalating series of corruption scandals in recent months. Muhammad Nazaruddin, the party's former treasurer, and other senior party members stand accused of rigging bids to fulfill government contracts worth more than $1 billion. Nazaruddin fled the country in May and spent three months on the lam before he was arrested in Colombia. Such public drama has undermined domestic and international confidence in the administration's supposed fight against corruption. Perhaps more important, no major political party now credibly carries the anticorruption mantle.

The Yudhoyono administration's promotion of Indonesia as an open, investor-friendly economy is another area in which the gap between rhetoric and reality is particularly large. The government's most recent Investment Negative List, which lays out limitations on foreign investment, is more restrictive than in the past. Indonesia has also backslid on some of its international commitments. The ASEAN-China Free-Trade Area, which came into effect in January 2010, is one such case. As part of the pact, Indonesia and China agreed to reduce or eliminate tariffs on thousands of goods. But since the agreement came into force, Indonesia's domestic industries ha

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 1:

Indonesia terikat untuk BRICs?Bagaimana mengulur-ulur reformasi bisa menahan JakartaOleh Karen BrooksUnduh artikelIndonesia adalah di tengah-tengah musim debut di panggung dunia. Ini melewati musim semi dan musim panas, ini menyelenggarakan serangkaian puncak profil tinggi, termasuk untuk Overseas Private Investment Corporation pada bulan Mei, World Economic Forum on East Asia bulan yang sama, dan Perhimpunan Bangsa-bangsa Asia Tenggara (ASEAN) pada bulan Juli. Dengan setiap peristiwa, Indonesia menerima pujian luas untuk kepemimpinan dan prestasi. Datang-pesta ini akan berujung pada bulan November, ketika negara tuan rumah KTT Asia Timur, yang Presiden AS Barack Obama dan para pemimpin dunia dari 17 negara-negara lain akan mengikuti. Sebagai perhatian berubah ke Indonesia, waktu sudah masak untuk menilai apakah Jakarta dapat hidup hingga semua hype.Sedikit lebih dari sepuluh tahun lalu, selama puncak krisis keuangan Asia, Indonesia tampak seperti keadaan di ambang kehancuran. Rupiah pada sebuah spiral kematian, protes terhadap Presiden Soeharto telah berubah menjadi kerusuhan dan kekerasan telah meletus terhadap Indonesia etnis Tionghoa. Kekacauan meninggalkan negara--terbesar keempat di dunia, negara kepulauan luas bergaris termasuk lebih dari 17.000 pulau, 200 juta orang, dan populasi Muslim terbesar di dunia – tanpa seorang pemimpin yang jelas.Today, Indonesia is hailed as a model democracy and is a darling of the international financial community. The Jakarta Stock Exchange has been among the world's top performers in recent years, and some analysts have even called for adding Indonesia to the ranks of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). More recent efforts to identify the economic superstars of the future -- Goldman Sachs' "Next 11," PricewaterhouseCoopers' "E-7" (emerging 7), The Economist's "CIVETS" (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa), and Citigroup's "3G" -- all include Indonesia.To be sure, Indonesia's track record has been impressive. In just a few short years following Suharto's 1998 fall from power, Indonesia transformed from a tightly controlled authoritarian system to one of the most vibrant democracies on earth. The elections in 1999 were widely praised as a triumph of democracy; the military stayed on the sidelines, and independent civil-society groups and the media blossomed in the run-up to the polls. With sweeping political and fiscal decentralization, Jakarta devolved real power and resources to the country's hundreds of districts and municipalities. The government created new, independent political institutions to provide for additional checks and balances, including a constitutional court, a judicial commission, and a corruption eradication commission (known by its Indonesian acronym, KPK). An ambitious constitutional reform formalized a presidential system and established a one-man, one-vote process. With no mechanism to filter the results (as the Electoral College does in the United States), Indonesia's voting system is among the most democratic in the world.The country's economic turnaround has been no less dramatic. In 1998, Indonesia's economy suffered a contraction of more than 13 percent. Since then, it has grown at an average rate of more than five percent per year, including 4.5 percent in 2009, when GDPs in much of the rest of the world shrank. This year, the Indonesian economy is expected to grow 6.5 percent. Indonesia's debt-to-GDP ratio has declined from a high of 100.3 percent in 2000 to 26 percent today, which compares favorably to those of the country's neighbors: Malaysia's is 54 percent, Vietnam's is 53 percent, the Philippines' is 47 percent, and Thailand's is 44 percent. Inflation, which spiked to 77 percent in 1998, now hovers just under five percent. The rupiah, which lost over four-fifths of its value that same year, is the strongest it has been since 2004 and is up 31 percent since 2008 alone. Other ASEAN currencies generally appreciated by between 15 and 20 percent in the same period.Indonesia has also made great strides in improving its security. In 2004, the government negotiated a peace settlement with separatists in the province of Aceh, ending a three-decade-long conflict that claimed thousands of lives. Elsewhere, Indonesian security forces have killed or captured hundreds of Islamist militants and have uncovered and shut down major terrorist hideouts and training camps, including one in Aceh in February 2010 that led to a number of high-profile arrests. The government has also implemented important structural reforms, including the creation of a national counterterrorism agency, tasked with forming and enforcing new domestic security laws.Against this backdrop, Indonesia has started to play a larger role on the international stage. When the G-20 was established in 2008, Indonesia was the only Southeast Asian nation offered membership. That same year, Indonesia launched the Bali Democracy Forum, a yearly regional conference to promote democracy in Asia. In recent months, the forum has become a platform for Indonesia to share lessons from its own democratic transition with some of Egypt's aspiring democrats.LOOMING CONSTRAINTSYet despite all the fanfare, the Indonesian score contains some decidedly discordant notes. Indonesia's ports are overstretched, its electrical grid is inadequate, and its road system is one of the least developed in the region. These conditions make the Indonesian economy inefficient and will stifle its future growth. In some regions, the price of basic commodities is up to three times as high as on the main island of Java. Meanwhile, manufacturers are squeezed by exorbitant transportation costs, which are higher in Indonesia than in almost every other ASEAN nation. On the World Bank's 2010 Logistics Performance Index, which is based on a worldwide survey of shippers and carriers combined with data on the performance of each country's supply chain, Indonesia ranked 75 out of 155, well below its neighbors.Jakarta is well aware of these problems, yet it currently spends only half as much on infrastructure development as it did in the 1990s. Seeking to address almost constant criticism on this issue, in May, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a new economic "master plan" with an emphasis on infrastructure projects. He also called for higher infrastructure spending in the 2012 budget. But even this budget would cover only about half of the administration's planned development through 2014. Without the new development, Indonesia will not meet its target of 7-8 percent GDP growth by the same year.Much of the burden of paving roads and providing power and water nationwide will thus fall to the private sector. However, Indonesia's inadequate regulatory framework and weak enforcement of existing regulations have muted private-sector interest. The absence of meaningful eminent domain regulations has proved particularly problematic; the inability to acquire land has prevented many projects from ever getting off the ground. Bureaucratic chaos at the National Land Agency, where plots are often recorded as being owned by multiple parties, has not helped. Yudhoyono has pledged to tackle these problems, but his credibility on the issue is fading.Endemic corruption further adds to Indonesia's high-cost economy. At the beginning of his first term, Yudhoyono named combating corruption a top priority. Since then, the KPK has sent dozens of politicians and former government officials to jail. Still, corruption runs deep at all levels of government, since the devolution of power after Suharto's fall brought with it the decentralization of graft. Now, officials from Jakarta down to the village level demand bribes and kickbacks, and such payments no longer ensure that things get done.A number of high-profile scandals during Yudhoyono's second term have showcased the breadth and depth of the problem. Investigations into the 2008 collapse and subsequent $700 million government bailout of Bank Century, a midsize bank with politically connected depositors, revealed that individuals from all elements of law enforcement -- senior police officers, officials from the attorney general's office, lawyers, judges -- had attempted to profit from the government bailout.Since then, the police and others have tried to weaken the KPK, including by attempting to frame two sitting members of the commission for, of all things, corruption. The episode paralyzed the KPK for months and made a mockery of Indonesia's judicial system. Although the commission emerged from this episode intact, it has since been focused on lower-profile cases.Perhaps most damning, the president's own political party has been at the center of an escalating series of corruption scandals in recent months. Muhammad Nazaruddin, the party's former treasurer, and other senior party members stand accused of rigging bids to fulfill government contracts worth more than $1 billion. Nazaruddin fled the country in May and spent three months on the lam before he was arrested in Colombia. Such public drama has undermined domestic and international confidence in the administration's supposed fight against corruption. Perhaps more important, no major political party now credibly carries the anticorruption mantle.The Yudhoyono administration's promotion of Indonesia as an open, investor-friendly economy is another area in which the gap between rhetoric and reality is particularly large. The government's most recent Investment Negative List, which lays out limitations on foreign investment, is more restrictive than in the past. Indonesia has also backslid on some of its international commitments. The ASEAN-China Free-Trade Area, which came into effect in January 2010, is one such case. As part of the pact, Indonesia and China agreed to reduce or eliminate tariffs on thousands of goods. But since the agreement came into force, Indonesia's domestic industries ha

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 2:

Apakah Indonesia Bound untuk BRICs?
Bagaimana Reformasi Stalling Bisa Tahan Jakarta Kembali
Oleh Karen Brooks Download Artikel Indonesia adalah di tengah-tengah debut selama setahun di panggung dunia. Ini musim semi lalu dan musim panas, menyelenggarakan serangkaian KTT profil tinggi, termasuk untuk Overseas Private Investment Corporation pada bulan Mei, Forum Ekonomi Dunia di Asia Timur bulan yang sama, dan Perhimpunan Bangsa Asia Tenggara (ASEAN) pada bulan Juli. Dengan setiap acara, Indonesia mendapat pujian luas untuk kepemimpinan dan prestasi. Partai datang-out ini akan berujung pada bulan November, ketika negara tuan rumah KTT Asia Timur, yang Presiden AS Barack Obama dan para pemimpin dunia dari 17 negara lainnya akan hadir. Sebagai perhatian beralih ke Indonesia, waktunya sudah matang untuk menilai apakah Jakarta dapat hidup sampai semua hype. Sedikit lebih dari sepuluh tahun yang lalu, selama puncak krisis keuangan Asia, Indonesia tampak seperti negara di ambang kehancuran. Nilai tukar rupiah berada di sebuah spiral kematian, protes terhadap rezim Presiden Soeharto telah berubah menjadi kerusuhan dan kekerasan telah meletus terhadap masyarakat etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia. Kekacauan meninggalkan negara - yang terbesar keempat di dunia, kepulauan yang luas termasuk lebih dari 17.000 pulau, 200 juta orang, dan populasi Muslim terbesar di dunia -. Tanpa pemimpin yang jelas Hari ini, Indonesia dipuji sebagai model demokrasi dan adalah Sayang komunitas keuangan internasional. Bursa Efek Jakarta telah di antara pemain top dunia dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, dan beberapa analis bahkan telah menyerukan menambahkan Indonesia ke jajaran negara-negara BRIC (Brazil, Rusia, India, dan China). Upaya yang lebih baru untuk mengidentifikasi superstar ekonomi masa depan - Goldman Sachs '"Berikutnya 11," PricewaterhouseCoopers' "E-7" (emerging 7), The Economist "CIVETS" (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mesir, Turki, dan Afrika Selatan), dan Citigroup "3G" -. semua termasuk Indonesia Yang pasti, track record Indonesia telah mengesankan. Dalam hanya beberapa tahun saja setelah Soeharto jatuh dari kekuasaan 1998, Indonesia berubah dari sistem otoriter dikontrol ketat ke salah satu negara demokrasi paling bersemangat di bumi. Pemilihan pada tahun 1999 secara luas dipuji sebagai kemenangan demokrasi; militer tinggal di sela-sela, dan kelompok-kelompok masyarakat sipil yang independen dan media berkembang dalam jangka-up ke tempat pemungutan suara. Dengan desentralisasi politik dan fiskal menyapu, Jakarta menyerahkan kekuasaan nyata dan sumber daya untuk ratusan negara dari kabupaten dan kota. Pemerintah menciptakan, lembaga-lembaga politik yang independen baru untuk menyediakan pemeriksaan tambahan dan saldo, termasuk pengadilan konstitusional, komisi yudisial, dan komisi pemberantasan korupsi (dikenal dengan singkatan bahasa Indonesia-nya, KPK). Sebuah reformasi konstitusi yang ambisius diformalkan sistem presidensial dan membentuk satu orang, proses satu suara. Dengan tidak ada mekanisme untuk menyaring hasil (sebagai elektoral tidak di Amerika Serikat), sistem voting di Indonesia termasuk yang paling demokratis di dunia. perputaran ekonomi negara itu belum ada kurang dramatis. Pada tahun 1998, ekonomi Indonesia mengalami kontraksi lebih dari 13 persen. Sejak itu, ia telah tumbuh pada tingkat rata-rata lebih dari lima persen per tahun, termasuk 4,5 persen pada 2009, ketika PDB di banyak dari sisa dunia menyusut. Tahun ini, perekonomian Indonesia diperkirakan akan tumbuh 6,5 persen. Rasio utang terhadap PDB Indonesia telah menurun dari tinggi 100,3 persen pada tahun 2000 menjadi 26 persen saat ini, yang lebih baik dibandingkan dengan orang-orang dari negara tetangga: Malaysia adalah 54 persen, Vietnam adalah 53 persen, Filipina adalah 47 persen, dan Thailand adalah 44 persen. Inflasi, yang melonjak ke 77 persen pada tahun 1998, sekarang melayang hanya di bawah lima persen. Rupiah, yang kehilangan lebih dari empat perlima dari nilai tahun yang sama, adalah yang terkuat sudah sejak tahun 2004 dan sampai 31 persen sejak tahun 2008 saja. Mata uang ASEAN lainnya umumnya dihargai oleh antara 15 dan 20 persen pada periode yang sama. Indonesia juga telah membuat langkah besar dalam meningkatkan keamanan. Pada tahun 2004, pemerintah merundingkan penyelesaian damai dengan separatis di Provinsi Aceh, mengakhiri konflik tiga dekade-panjang yang menewaskan ribuan orang. Di tempat lain, pasukan keamanan Indonesia telah dibunuh atau ditangkap ratusan militan Islam dan telah menemukan dan menutup tempat persembunyian teroris besar dan kamp-kamp pelatihan, termasuk satu di Aceh pada bulan Februari 2010 yang menyebabkan sejumlah penangkapan profil tinggi. Pemerintah juga telah menerapkan reformasi struktural penting, termasuk penciptaan badan kontraterorisme nasional, yang bertugas membentuk dan menegakkan undang-undang keamanan dalam negeri baru. Dengan latar belakang ini, Indonesia telah mulai memainkan peran yang lebih besar di panggung internasional. Ketika G-20 didirikan pada tahun 2008, Indonesia adalah satu-satunya negara Asia Tenggara yang ditawarkan keanggotaan. Pada tahun yang sama, Indonesia meluncurkan Bali Democracy Forum, sebuah konferensi regional tahunan untuk mempromosikan demokrasi di Asia. Dalam beberapa bulan terakhir, forum telah menjadi platform bagi Indonesia untuk berbagi pelajaran dari transisi demokrasi sendiri dengan beberapa calon demokrat Mesir. menjulang KENDALA Namun meskipun semua gembar-gembor, skor Indonesia mengandung beberapa catatan jelas sumbang. Pelabuhan di Indonesia yang berlebihan, jaringan listrik yang tidak memadai, dan sistem jalan adalah salah satu yang paling berkembang di kawasan ini. Kondisi ini membuat perekonomian Indonesia tidak efisien dan akan menghambat pertumbuhan masa depan. Di beberapa daerah, harga komoditas dasar sampai tiga kali lebih tinggi di pulau utama Jawa. Sementara itu, produsen diperas oleh biaya transportasi terlalu tinggi, yang lebih tinggi di Indonesia daripada di hampir setiap negara ASEAN lainnya. Pada tahun 2010 Indeks Kinerja Logistik Bank Dunia, yang didasarkan pada survei di seluruh dunia pengirim dan operator dikombinasikan dengan data pada kinerja rantai pasokan masing-masing negara, Indonesia peringkat 75 dari 155, jauh di bawah negara-negara tetangganya. Jakarta sangat menyadari ini masalah, namun saat ini hanya menghabiskan setengah sebanyak pada pembangunan infrastruktur seperti yang terjadi pada 1990-an. Mencari untuk mengatasi kritik hampir konstan tentang masalah ini, pada bulan Mei, Presiden Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono mengeluarkan ekonomi "master plan" baru dengan penekanan pada proyek-proyek infrastruktur. Dia juga menyerukan belanja infrastruktur yang lebih tinggi dalam anggaran 2012. Tetapi bahkan anggaran ini akan mencakup hanya sekitar setengah dari pembangunan yang direncanakan pemerintah melalui 2014. Tanpa pengembangan baru, Indonesia tidak akan memenuhi target pertumbuhan PDB 7-8 persen pada tahun yang sama. Banyak beban paving jalan dan memberikan kekuatan dan air nasional sehingga akan jatuh ke sektor swasta. Namun, kerangka peraturan dan lemah penegakan memadai di Indonesia peraturan yang ada telah diredam kepentingan sektor swasta. Tidak adanya peraturan domain terkemuka yang berarti telah terbukti sangat bermasalah; ketidakmampuan untuk memperoleh tanah telah mencegah banyak proyek dari yang pernah mendapatkan dari tanah. Kekacauan birokrasi di Badan Pertanahan Nasional, di mana plot sering dicatat sebagai yang dimiliki oleh beberapa pihak, tidak membantu. Yudhoyono telah berjanji untuk mengatasi masalah ini, tetapi kredibilitasnya dalam masalah ini memudar. korupsi Endemik semakin menambah ekonomi biaya tinggi di Indonesia. Pada awal masa jabatan pertamanya, Yudhoyono bernama pemberantasan korupsi sebagai prioritas utama. Sejak itu, KPK telah mengirimkan puluhan politisi dan mantan pejabat pemerintah ke penjara. Namun, korupsi berjalan dalam di semua tingkat pemerintahan, sejak devolusi kekuasaan setelah jatuhnya Suharto dibawa dengan desentralisasi korupsi. Sekarang, para pejabat dari Jakarta sampai ke tingkat desa suap permintaan dan suap, dan pembayaran tersebut tidak lagi memastikan bahwa hal-hal yang bisa dilakukan. Sejumlah skandal profil tinggi selama periode kedua SBY ini telah memamerkan luas dan kedalaman masalah. Investigasi runtuhnya 2008 dan selanjutnya $ 700.000.000 bailout pemerintah dari Bank Century, bank menengah dengan deposan koneksi politik, mengungkapkan bahwa individu dari semua elemen penegak hukum - polisi senior, pejabat dari kantor jaksa agung, pengacara, hakim - telah berusaha untuk mendapatkan keuntungan dari bailout pemerintah. Sejak itu, polisi dan lain-lain telah mencoba untuk melemahkan KPK, termasuk dengan mencoba untuk membingkai dua anggota yang duduk komisi untuk, segala sesuatu, korupsi. Episode melumpuhkan KPK selama berbulan-bulan dan membuat ejekan dari sistem peradilan di Indonesia. Meskipun komisi muncul dari episode ini utuh, sejak saat itu telah difokuskan pada kasus yang lebih rendah-profil. Mungkin yang paling memberatkan, partai politik sendiri presiden telah berada di pusat seri meningkatnya skandal korupsi dalam beberapa bulan terakhir. Muhammad Nazaruddin, mantan bendahara partai, dan anggota partai senior lainnya dituduh mencurangi tawaran untuk memenuhi kontrak pemerintah senilai lebih dari $ 1 miliar. Nazaruddin meninggalkan negara itu pada bulan Mei dan menghabiskan tiga bulan buronan sebelum ia ditangkap di Kolombia. Drama publik tersebut telah merusak kepercayaan domestik dan internasional di seharusnya melawan pemerintahan melawan korupsi. Mungkin yang lebih penting, tidak ada partai politik besar sekarang dipercaya membawa mantel antikorupsi. Promosi Yudhoyono pemerintahan Indonesia sebagai terbuka, ekonomi ramah-investor adalah daerah lain di mana kesenjangan antara retorika dan realitas sangat besar. Daftar Negatif Investasi terbaru pemerintah, yang menjabarkan pembatasan investasi asing, lebih ketat daripada di masa lalu. Indonesia juga telah murtad pada beberapa komitmen internasional. ASEAN-China Free Trade Area-, yang mulai berlaku pada bulan Januari 2010, adalah salah satu kasus tersebut. Sebagai bagian dari perjanjian tersebut, Indonesia dan China sepakat untuk mengurangi atau menghilangkan tarif pada ribuan barang. Tapi karena perjanjian mulai berlaku, industri dalam negeri di Indonesia ha