Exactly 1 week after World Corruption Day, Public Administration Science Interest Program Public Administration Faculty of Administrative Sciences Universitas Brawijaya (FIA UB) held International Guest Lectures by theme “Anti-Corruption Policy in Korea”. It was felt that this theme was suitable to be chosen considering that after more than half a century the nation of Indonesia was independent, we were still trapped in the problem of "corruption" which seemed to never end. Guest Lectures The event was held to get an overview of the corruption that occurred in Korea and the ideas used by the Korean state to overcome corruption in the region.
Present as a speaker at the event were Prof. Chung Hee Lee, Ph.D. He is a senior lecturer from the Department of Political Science, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), Seoul, South Korea. This event was also not only attended by undergraduate to doctoral students from the Department of Public Administration, but also by Lecturers from the Department of Public Administration - FIA UB.
This event was opened by Dr. Luqman Hakin, M.Sc as Chair of the Government Science Study Program, Department of Public Administration, FIA UB. In his speech he revealed that corruption is one “hot topic” in most countries of the world. Both developed and developing countries cannot escape the trap of corruption. "With this activity, we can compare the level and way of handling corruption in Indonesia and Korea. We will set a good example," said Luqman.
As stated by Prof. Lee, Indonesia has great power to become a developed country. Indonesia has abundant natural resources, a conducive climate, adequate human resources, a large area and so on. Prof. further Lee said that if Indonesia is able to deal with the problem of corruption, he is sure that in the future Indonesia will become one of the 5 big countries in the world. This, according to him, is very possible considering the level of corruption between Indonesia and Korea is relatively the same.
He revealed that corruption in Korea did not only occur in the government shown during the Park Chung Hee regime, but also in the private sector in relation to the government as happened with Samsung, Hyundai, and Daewoo, and also in the military and defense industry. Furthermore, Prof. Lee revealed that the occurrence of corruption was caused by a culture of nepotism and paternalism, personal relationships with authorities, personal networks, and other illegal practices that were tolerated.
To overcome this, Prof. Lee expressed the need to build strong institutions and an anti-corruption culture, form regulations and provide strict punishment, transparency, and the need for community movements to eradicate corruption. At the end of his presentation he revealed that the world community has enough ability and desire to stop corruption because 2 out of 3 people believe they can make something different to deal with corruption, and more than 90% people have the same desire to unite against corruption. "And when society moves, a change will occur," he said in fluent English. (AM/FIA)
