‘All Chinese are the same’: Indonesia’s ‘nationalism’ test for graft-busters sparks outrage

Dozens of Corruption Eradication Commission staff face dismissal after failing to prove their allegiance to the state in a test that asked offensive questions including whether homosexuals should be physically punished

With some of the best known investigators among those facing the chop, critics suspect an orchestrated attempt to weaken the body and warn of dire consequences for the nation’s democracy

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Novel Baswedan, a senior investigator of Indonesia’s anti-graft agency who had acid flung in his face in 2017, is among the staff said to have failed the nationalism test. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:30am, 4 Jun 2021Updated: 8:22pm, 4 Jun 2021

Dozens of staff at Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission are facing the threat of dismissal after failing a “nationalism” test, in a move critics say could undermine the fight against graft in the world’s third largest democracy.

More than 1,300 staff at the commission, better known by its initials KPK, were made to take a written test between April and May to prove their allegiance to the state ideology Pancasila, which stresses national unity despite ethnic and religious diversity, and the government.

About 75 of them, including senior investigators, failed. The KPK chairman then said 51 of them would have to leave the organisation, with the rest required to take part in a specialised training programme.

The test questions were then leaked to the media and went viral, sparking criticism for being odd and even offensive to minority groups.

CNN Indonesia, which posted an infographic titled “Ridiculous questions in the KPK nationalism test”, said the questions included: All Chinese are the same (do you agree or not?); What if you were my second wife?; Would you receive a blood donation from someone who is of a different religion to you?

Other questions, according to local media, asked if all Japanese were “cruel”, whether “homosexual rights” should “be fulfilled” and whether “homosexuals should be physically punished”. Test takers also had to write an essay on various topics such as LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, drugs, banned groups like communist party or Papua rebels, and firebrand cleric Rizieq Shihab and his now-banned, Muslim fundamentalist group, the Islamic Defenders Front.

While the names of 51 staff who will be booted out by November are yet to be revealed to the public, senior investigator Novel Baswedan is among the 75 KPK staff who failed the test. Baswedan was the victim of an acid attack that damaged his eyes in 2017 following his role in several high-profile corruption cases.

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