Indonesia's Honesty Cafes
By Dandy Koswaraputra IOL Correspondent http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1245754254655&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout The cashier-free cafes seek to nurture integrity among customers and society at large. (IOL photo) JAKARTA — Kletus Badik raced to grab a bottle of mineral water and a fried cake before the start of yet another lecture in the Driyarkara Philosophy Institute in Jakarta. He did not have to stand in a line or wait for a cashier. Kletus and his colleagues take whatever they want and deposit the money in a transparent plastic box in the university's "honesty café." "It is self service transaction," he told IslamOnline.net. "You can buy them based on the written prices list, put the money on the box then arrange the change by yourself." Honesty cafes, the brainchild of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Attorney General’s office, seek to nurture integrity among customers and society at large. By shifting the responsibility of paying to the clients, they strive to make people think about their own honesty and integrity. "It is bit uneasy, but good to test our honesty," says Kletus. Some 3,000 such cafes have cropped up across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country with a population of 220 million, since the beginning of 2009. "We have been sponsoring the establishment of such cafes across the country in campuses and junior high schools levels," KPK spokesman Johan Budi told IOL. "The seed of anti-corruption must be planted since early age." Since the start of the campaign, some 7,456 honesty cafes have opened in 23 provinces, according to the National Youth Group. It expects 10,000 honesty cafes to be operating in 26 provinces by the end of the year before eventually reaching all 33 provinces. Mission Aida Mustafa owns an honesty cafe at a junior high school in Jakarta. "I have a responsibility to teach them because there is no substitute for honesty," she told IOL. Although she sometimes suffers a financial loss, she remains committed to the experiment. "I’ve never given up to keep going with my mission to educate young people for upholding honesty." Indonesia has persistently ranked high in the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International's list of the most corruption-prone states. It is accused of having a lax attitude towards prosecuting offenders, including former president Suharto who is accused of embezzling 15-30 billion dollars during his 32 years in power. The honesty cafes are spreading everywhere, including inside the KPK, created in 2003 as an independent body to coordinate all anti-corruption efforts and supervise and investigate corruption cases. "It is a non-profit joint venture project among the KPK staffs," explains Johan, the KPK spokesman. "That’s purely an honesty laboratory." The KPK honesty cafe is well-organized, more like professional supermarket. "We search for what we want to buy then leave the money in the box, after that we write down the purchased things in the book, that’s all," explains Bambang Kuncoko, one of its customers. Since it was opened, the café has been running smoothly. "Perhaps that’s because our customers are mostly educated persons and have strong awareness on anti-corruption," Johan said.
