YOUTH; ANTI-CORRUPTION AMBASSADOR

YOUTH; ANTI-CORRUPTION AMBASSADOR

By       : Wijanarko

Student of The State Islamic University (UIN) Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten

            Quoting from Bung Karno's utterance, the first Indonesian President, he said "Give me 10 youths, so I will shake the world." It is very interesting why Bung Karno is so confident to say that. Actually, what makes the youth so special in his presence? how many influences that youth can do and contribute in the life of nation and state?

            Realized or not, the youth actually has a strategic role and function in the development acceleration including in the process of nation and state life. Youth is an actor in development. The young generation has a strong character to build a nation, a spirit of high nationalism, competitive, strong personality, and idealistic thinking. So, no wonder why the youth is burdened with responsibility as social control.

Youth as a social control is manifested by strengthening national insights; awakening awareness of responsibilities, rights, and duties as citizens; generating a critical attitude toward the environment and law enforcement; increasing participation in public policy formulation; ensuring transparency and public accountability; and facilitating access of information.

Unfortunately, Indonesia, as a big country that has been independent for 72 years is still experiencing a crisis of serious corruption. According to the annual report of International Transparency 2017,  quoted from Kompas.com on the "Corruption Perceptions Index 2017", Indonesia ranks 96th out of a total of 180 non-corrupt countries in the world parallel to Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Thailand and Zambia.

This is very ironic considering the age of Indonesia country which has been independent for 72 years, which can be said to be mature enough in the affairs of the state, still fettered by acute corrupt practices. No half-hearted, the state officials were involved in this rotten practice. Call it one of them is Setya Novanto, the former Chairman of the House of Representatives of Indonesia Republic in period 2014-2019 who conducted corruption procurement to E-KTP Project causing the country suffered losses of around Rp 2.3 Billion Rupiah. In such a case, the function of youth as social control is needed. Be critical of social inequality and actively participate in providing appropriate solutions to deal with domestic polemics.

The "Anti-Corruption Spirit" run by the Denmark government can be an inspiration for the Indonesian government to combat corruption in this country. By Transparency International, Denmark was crowned as the world's most not corrupt country. Denmark is very zero tolerance against corruption. In this case, youth as a social control is required to contribute in handling eradicating corruption by creative, productive and innovative ways.

Founding a Community for the purpose of campaigning for "Anti-Corruption Spirit" can be a good foundation and a very first step that youth can do. With the presence of a community, it means that youths already have a strategic platform to gather power by contributing their energy and mind to find solutions of how this spirit can be transmitted to all levels of society.

The next step is by doing a Sustainable Campaign. Campaigning the "Anti-Corruption Spirit" in a concrete form constantly is expected to develop public awareness to combat acts of corruption seriously. Creative, innovative, and productive campaigns are needed in this case. This is where the critical level of youth will be greatly tested. Online campaigns using social media (such as facebook, twitter, youtube, Instagram etc.) as a means are creative and innovative campaigns in providing an understanding and doctrine to the public about "Anti-Corruption Spirit" by inviting the community to not hesitate and dare to report corruption in the form of anything to the authorities. Especially in this digital era, almost everyone uses social media. According to data released by Kominfo in 2013, internet users in Indonesia reached 63 million people. Of these figures, 95% of them use the internet to access social media.

In addition to using social media, youth can also take advantage of other means such as Newspapers. Increasingly giving opinions, responses and criticisms can also be a powerful way of campaigning "Anti-Corruption Spirit" to the public. Whether realized or not, the doctrine of "Anti-Corruption Spirit" will seep into the reader's mind and spur their mindset to campaign this spirit to others or at least for themselves.

Youth as a social control has a great responsibility to overcome the polemic that plagued this country especially in terms of corruption. Corruption became the greatest enemy for Indonesia country even for all countries in the world because corruption is very damaging the life of nation and state. Youth as "Anti-Corruption Ambassador" is the best asset owned by the nation. Because with a strong character, a spirit of high nationalism, competitive, strong personality, and idealism, youth can carve out a history.