'I feel that I can no longer function in these conditions, as everything has become so skewed. The truth has been blurred, while foibles and filth are taken as truth. What is actually right is now wrong - you know what I'm talking about,' Mr Sophan said.

He refused to link his departure to the split within the PDI-P over whether to pursue parliamentary investigations of House Speaker and Golkar party chief Akbar Tandjung for corruption.

Political observer J. Kristiadi, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said politics was viewed as dirty in mainstream public opinion, but Mr Sophan had proven himself 'a symbol of conscience'. He described Mr Sophan as 'a small ray of light in a big, dark space'.

The notion of a deep malaise within the body politic, evidenced by constant corruption and a lack of leadership, is being discussed more and more in Indonesia.

A national congress of the modernist Muslim group Muhammadiyah in Bali last week heard speakers decry the moral deterioration of the ruling elite and castigate Indonesians for being 'sick' and 'lazy'.

Leading moderate Muslim intellectual Nurcholish Madjid, who often plays the role of a canary in a coal mine with his prescient warnings, told the Muhammadiyah faithful that Indonesia was becoming a basketcase.

He also warned the largely silent and passive President Megawati that 'any president who is unable to meet people's high expectations will risk his or her position'.

'We should be ashamed to be known as 'lazy and poor people'. Indonesia will always be at the rear end and looked down on by others,' Mr Nurcholish said.

'It is strange that most Indonesians, especially those in power and politics, are reluctant to lead simple and modest lives. We are a bankrupt country. Why should we behave as if we are a rich people?'

Speaking to a reportedly visibly shocked audience, he described how representatives of Indonesia begging for more money and national debt relief arrived at meetings in chauffeur-driven limousines while donor representatives took the subway.

Mr Nurcholish blamed such behaviour on the nation's feudalistic, paternalistic and snobbish culture that grew like a plant on fertile land and was as deeply entrenched among the authorities and the people now as it was during the New Order regime of former president Suharto.

'All government officials act like kings who should be adored and served by their subordinates. Corruption, collusion and nepotism have become our culture. It is very hard to change the existing corruption culture which has been embodied in our lives for more than four decades,' he said.

'Indonesia is a really sick and immature nation which urgently needs enlightenment.'

Part of the recent rash of moral flagellation has been sparked by disappointment at the lack of reformist drive at the top and the new-found prominence of local militant Muslim views in response to the US-declared war on terrorism.

Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafi'i Ma'arif pointed out that extremism grows when leaders 'turn a deaf ear to the needs of the people'.

'People are sick of seeing hypocrisy from our political leaders,' Mr Syafi'i said.