Joko Widodo (left) with his opponent in the presidential election Prabowo Subianto.

Joko Widodo (left) with his opponent in the presidential election Prabowo Subianto. Photo: Reuters

Jakarta: Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto may be excused some nervousness as he enters the office of Indonesia’s redoubtable anti-corruption commission in Jakarta on Wednesday, where he and his running mate will face a grilling over their personal finances.

It is a crucial part of the election process that his opponents, Joko Widodo and deputy Jusuf Kalla, will face on Thursday.

But hundreds of members of Indonesia’s elite who have passed through those doors in recent years have been condemned to disgrace, humiliation and long terms of imprisonment.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Photo: AFP

In April alone, the Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, universally known as KPK, raided the office of the Home Affairs Minister, investigated the Agriculture Minister and arrested the head of the Supreme Audit Agency (the equivalent of the Auditor-General in Australia).

The following month the Religious Affairs Minister was named as a suspect for stealing funds collected to pay for the pilgrimage to Mecca. About $100 million is alleged to have disappeared.

Corruption like this in Australia would topple the government. In Indonesia, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was not even moved to comment.

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali did eventually step down but he remains an active member of the Prabowo campaign team, appearing on stage at rallies where the candidate promises clean government.

To say corruption is endemic in Indonesia is a laughable understatement. It permeates every government authority, cripples tax collection and social spending, and riddles the police, the prosecution service and the courts. The chief justice of the Constitutional Court (equivalent of the Australian High Court chief justice) is facing a life sentence for accepting bribes to sway cases.

The KPK is the one authority dedicated – and so far unassailable – in the fight against it.

That means it is hated by the powerful, but ordinary people love it. The KPK is now the only government institution trusted by the Indonesian public.

This translates into political power and in the final two weeks of the presidential election campaign, the KPK intends to use it.

When the candidates visit this week, eyes will be on general-turned-businessman Prabowo particularly, who made his start as a son-in-law of the kleptocratic former ruler Suharto, to explain his wealth. But Jusuf Kalla, Jokowi’s running mate, has also been accused in the past of corrupt behaviour. The results of the KPK investigation are likely to be announced next week.

Closer to the election, the KPK will also call both candidates to sign an ”Integrity Pact”, including a commitment to safeguard the KPK. It would be a brave candidate who refused.

KPK commissioner Adnan Pandu Praja said this commitment was no mere ”bullshit” pledge, adding: ”We can interfere in policy.”

The KPK wants the new president’s written support, because it has powerful enemies to combat and, according to Mr Adnan, the serving president, perhaps because its investigations have gutted Yudhoyono’s cabinet and his political party, has been lukewarm.

In late 2012, the KPK arrested the country’s most senior traffic cop, General Djoko Susilo, for corrupting a tender process. The investigation found $20 million in unexplained assets. The police reacted violently and 300 armed officers surrounded the KPK office, threatening to raid it and arrest an investigator. Ordinary people, organised through social media, rushed to the Jakarta building and formed a ”fence of legs”, halting the police action.

President Yudhoyono, meanwhile, ”said nothing”, according to Mr Adnan. ”Only after one week did he make some comment.”

Parliament is another threat. More than 73 members of national and regional parliaments have been prosecuted by the KPK since 2007.

In retaliation, the national parliament stalled for years on approving a budget for a new KPK office building until a public fund-raising campaign shamed MPs into it. A bill introduced early this year would have prevented the KPK from mounting investigations, limiting its role to prevention.

”We opposed that bill, and [the parliamentarians] were afraid they would not be elected again, so they cancelled the discussion,” Mr Adnan said.

There is much the KPK would do with stronger presidential backing. Its budget is 0.03 per cent of the national budget but it needs, according to Mr Adnan, more like 0.5 per cent. It has no branch offices around Indonesia’s far-flung archipelago and is limited to investigations within Jakarta (though it gets around that in some cases). It only has the staff to handle 75 investigations a year from 8000 complaints.

The head of anti-corruption studies at UGM University, Zainal Arifin Mochtar, said the KPK was seen as a ”lone ranger” among Indonesia’s weak institutions – it had media and public support but ”the strong support of the state is yet to be seen”.

In rhetoric at least, both presidential candidates decry corruption. We will get a better idea in the next fortnight how deep that commitment runs.