From ‘sick nation’ to ‘superpower’: Anti-corruption knowledge and discourse and the construction of Indonesian national identity (1997–2019)

Abstract

Anti-corruption knowledge and discourse emerged in the mid-1990s promoted by powerful international actors and organizations, mostly targeting countries in the ‘Third World’. In this paper, we seek to decolonize this knowledge and show how it influences the construction of national identity of former colonies. Our case is a country with a reputation as one of the most corrupt in the world: Indonesia. Long celebrated in the West for its economic growth and political stability, in 1997 the Asian Financial Crisis forced Indonesia to accept financial aid from the International Monetary Fund accompanied by harsh conditions that resulted in domestic turmoil. Using discourse-historical method, we trace how national identity was constructed in The Jakarta Post from 1997 through two decades of Western-influenced corruption-related reform. Our findings show how acceptance of Western anti-corruption discourse and knowledge early on contributed to highly negative internal constructions of Indonesian national identity, but over time, this gave way both to more positive self-presentations as well as greater critique and contestation of this knowledge. Moreover, alternative rationales for anti-corruption were asserted that drew from shared understandings of Islam and Indonesia’s independence. Overall, we show how this type of internationally dominant management and organizational knowledge (MOK) colonized how Indonesia was imagined but that contestation was possible, enabled by improvements in economic circumstances. We conclude by arguing that to understand the colonizing effects of MOK, it is necessary to look at the impact of management knowledge beyond the boundaries of organizations, including at the level of national identities.

Coloniality of anti-corruption: Whiteness, disasters, and the US anti-corruption policies in Puerto Rico

“…Taking into consideration critiques of the anti-corruption industry, and the substantial critical scholarship on corruption, this article aims to sketch a critical understanding of anti-corruption from the standpoint of global south, colonial, and racialized communities. Corruption narratives have direct ontological implication going beyond policy and having direct impact on the national identity (Pertiwi & Ainsworth, 2021). This article engages with critical scholarship that has, for a long time, tried to unsettle the anti-corruption industry and the above described 'normative' study of corruption.…”

“…Several scholars have questioned these conceptualizations of corruption and anti-corruption policies by pointing out the neoliberal, colonial, and neocolonial agenda, and the methodological and epistemic flaws of this scholarship (Brown & Cloke, 2006; De Maria, 2008; Murphy & Brindusa, 2018; Pertiwi & Ainsworth, 2021; Whyte, 2007b). This article engages and follows this critical scholarship and aims to contribute to the development of the emerging field of global south sociology and sociolegal studies of corruption, by developing the concept of coloniality of anti-corruption.…”

“…Corruption discourses, and descriptions of colonial territories and subjects as corrupt, are a constitutive part of western colonialism (Apata, 2019; Go, 2000; Pertiwi & Ainsworth, 2021). Muir and Gupta (2018, p. s6) argue that corruption, as a key category of modern political economy, typically indexes the nonmodern.…”

COVID-19 and the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program in Puerto Rico: Anti-Corruption, Fraud Prevention, and Punishment

“…Colonization is always a racialized and gendered process whose shape is influenced by hierarchies and social structures drawn from both the metropole and the existing colonized territory. Corruption discourses, and descriptions of colonial territories and subjects as corrupt, are a constitutive part of Western colonialism (Apata, 2019; Pertiwi and Ainsworth, 2021; Villanueva, 2019). This critical understanding is echoed by Wilson’s (2023) socio-historical analysis of the uses of corruption during the colonial era in India, and by Lee’s (2015) sociolegal analysis of the role of corruption in the colonial governance in the Straits Settlements.…”