Harlans Fachra

In Indonesia, high officials in government and industry are almost uniformly corrupt, but it’s the ordinary citizens who bear the brunt of their dishonesty. Harlans is building a citizens’ movement, working to show people how corruption affects their daily lives, and, in doing so, motivating them to take action against it.

Corruption in Indonesia is an epidemic problem, infecting the government, the courts, private business, education, and civil society organizations.
Not only does this cost the country millions of dollars every year, but it also undermines people’s faith in the system. The real victims are the ordinary people, most of whom are so accustomed to living amidst massive corruption that have long since ceased regarding it as anything extraordinary and instead consider it a fact of life.
Since high officials would rather ignore the problem, Harlans believes that the only way to change the system is to get citizens involved. People must understand not only the systemic nature of Indonesian corruption, but also how it has harmed them in almost every aspect of their daily lives. He aims to educate the common people to recognize the effects of corruption and provide them with the means to confront it. Harlans and fellow activists have established West Java Corruption Watch as a grassroots tool against corruption, helping citizens to understand corruption and organize against it. Harlans and his team have already established a network of over 30 organizations in 22 provinces building awareness and support at the community level.

Recently, a survey of over 1,000 business people rated Indonesia as the most corrupt country in Asia. This is not a new phenomenon, as, for many years, Indonesia has ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. High government officials siphon off funds earmarked for farmers’ cooperatives, village improvement or education, while local officials demand extra fees for land certification, identity cards, marriage and birth certificates, clinic health services, and school registration.
In the past, the Soeharto government was notorious for its patronage and corruption, and the 1998 student movement that toppled his regime rallied behind the cry to abolish “corruption, collusion and nepotism.” The dream was short-lived, however; after Soeharto, corruption remained a fact of life and even became even more widespread with the decentralization of government powers under the recent regional autonomy laws. Everyone from political parties to village councils to professional organizations use corruption to protect their vested interests. The common people, meanwhile, are continually disillusioned by the inability of the judicial system to actually prosecute high level perpetrators of corruption.
Anti-corruption advocates have suggested myriad ways to crack down on corruption, from judicial and electoral reform initiatives to widely publicized court cases involving the elite players, but in a society where the elites have no interest in fighting corruption, little progress has been made. Ordinary citizens have traditionally failed to pressure politicians into giving up corruption because they don’t think it would be possible for them to achieve any change. In this climate, apathy and ignorance are the most serious obstacles to motivating the people and fighting corruption.

To reach out to the common citizens and make them understand how corruption harms their lives, Harlans uses media that are easily accessible to a less sophisticated audience. For example, he printed 5,000 comic books detailing corruption problems facing Indonesian villagers. Written in a mixture of Bahasa Indonesian and a local dialect, the comic ends with a positive “can do!” message as the villagers form a local anti-corruption forum. Harlens has also used colorful posters and radio programs to help raise public awareness of corruption.
Once ordinary people begin to understand why corruption is a problem and how it harms them, Harlans invites them to anti-corruption skills workshops, where they can begin to discuss ways to combat corruption. Harlans’ West Java Corruption Watch is currently working in four districts of West Java province at the village, sub-district and district levels to mobilize citizen groups. Their skills workshops bring together concerned individuals with representatives of community groups like retired civil servants, teachers, youth group leaders, religious leaders, young college graduates, farmers, housewives, and factory workers. Harlans presents compiled materials to help people analyze the systemic nature of corruption and see how it applies to specific local problems, such as local budget misuse and additional fees for public services. In addition to training people how to recognize corruption, Harlans’ meetings also offer practical tools and skills for solving the problem.
By way of practical measures, Harlans encourages villagers to attack corruption directly through petitions and citizen pressure groups, since taking the issue to district level courts is expensive, time consuming and often frustrating. He also mentors groups combating corruption in their local area, and has also established umbrella groups to support and strengthen community organizations at the district level. Harlans helps people working on the anti-corruption mission with advice on income generating activities to help build solidarity and skills such as financial management to help people safeguard against corruption in their own community groups. The key principle they instill in anti-corruption groups is that they must practice what they preach: Harlens is determined to keep this anti-corruption league honest.
Some stories of initial success have encouraged other groups to believe they can bring about real change in their lives. For example, the people of one village realized that young people were being seriously over-charged for marriage certificates in their sub-district. The group gathered complaints and signatures, then went to both the office of religion and the civil licensing office to show officials the laws stating the official price of a marriage certificate. They were able to embarrass the officials into enforcing the regulations. The group continues to regularly monitor how such fees are charged.
Harlans and West Java Corruption Watch plan to continue recruiting more members through education and strengthening of people’s organizations. They spread their work through media exposure, comics and word of mouth. Harlans often invites members from other regions such as Sulawesi, Sumatra, Central Java, and Kalimantan to take part in his activities as observers.
The successes have spread to the village and district level in West Java. Beyond that, Harlans has established a network of over 30 organizations in 22 provinces working against corruption, and many anti-corruptions groups that were previously focused solely on research have begun to adopt Harlans’ model.

Harlans grew up in the matrilineal Minangkabau culture of West Sumatra. His grandfather was a Bupati or district chief, as well as leader in the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah. His parents were both school principals, and many members of his family were active in community organizations.
In secondary school, Harlans became active as a leader in scouting and student government. When heavy floods struck West Sumatra in the late 1980s, he joined the Red Cross student organization to help offer aid. Later, he became the organization’s president. At university in Bandung, he studied accounting with the intention of becoming a public accountant, but he also continued his work with social aid organizations. He become involved in the Forum of Student Activists, an organization active in the student movement against the Soeharto regime, and served as its secretary general for three years. Upon graduation, Harlans worked in an international bank, but was quickly disappointed in the system when he witnessed the corrupt dealings first hand. He left to take a part time teaching job, while still continuing his work with fellow activists in the legal aid society. In 1999 together with colleagues, Harlans established the West Java Corruption Watch, which became a legal organization in 2000.