The Face of Corruption

It is known, and it is true, that Indonesia is a country where corruption runs rampant.

But for everyday life what does it mean? How do you run your errands under heavily corrupted institutions?

The face of high-level corruption can be this Gayus fellow with his infamous wig.
But this is an enormous case, it involves police officers and immigration officers and the Direktorat Jenderal Pajak - the taxmen, the equivalent of the IRS for Americans.

Anyway, for the Gayus case you can start from here and reconstruct the whole story.

What about the low-level corruption then? Its face can be the one of the properly veiled lady at the immigration office who asked Rp. 250 000 (roughly 25 USD) to process my visa extension application within the same day rather than in the couple of days it normally takes.

Or it can be the face of the head of some administrative division - there is no equivalent for that in Europe or the States, so don't ask me to explain - who signed a domicily letter for my wife. When asked - by a mediator - why a simple signature costed Rp. 100 000, he replied that he had spent billions to be elected there, and now he has to take back that money somehow, during his five years in office.

So there you go, with bribes and wheel-greasing.