SYLVIA TIDEY University of Amsterdam Between the ethical and the right thing: How (not) to be corrupt in Indonesian bureaucracy in an age of good governance ABSTRACT Is it possible to be corrupt yet ethical? Or good but unethical? In one of Indonesia’s most corrupt towns, the answers to these questions are far from clear for young elite civil servants, who must navigate the moral-ethical landscape of post-Suharto bureaucracy. For them, anticorruption efforts heighten uncertainty regarding what corruption is and facilitate slippage between various constructions of ethical selfhood. The uncertainty arises at the intersection of local moral economies, national ideologies of state building, the particular global morality of anticorruption, and a conception of the good that inspires neoliberal ideas on governance. Finding themselves at this intersection, young civil servants can find no unambiguous contrast between being “good” and “corrupt.” [corruption, anticorruption, good governance, civil service, morality, ethics, Indonesia] Apakah mungkin seseorang yang melakukan praktek korupsi akan tetapi pada saat yang bersamaan menjadi seseorang yang etis? Atau sebaliknya; apakah mungkin menjadi seseorang yang baik akan tetapi juga tidak etis? Di suatu kota yang paling korup di Indonesia, jawaban terhadap pertanyaan di atas sangatlah tidak jelas dan sulit untuk diterangkan bagi elit Pegawai Negeri Sipil (PNS) muda, yang harus menavigasi tatanan moral dan etika dalam tubuh birokrasi pasca kekuasaan Soeharto. Bagi mereka, upaya gerakan antikorupsi justru meningkatkan ketidakjelasan tentang apa itu korupsi dan mempermudah tergelincir di antara beragam konstruksi dan makna etika. Ketidakjelasan itu timbul pada saat terjadi persinggungan antara ekonomi moral lokal, ideologi nasional tentang pembentukan negara, nilai moralitas antikorupsi global dan konsepsi tentang kebaikan, yang menginspirasi ide-ide neoliberalisme tentang pemerintahan. Bagi PNS yang berada di tengah-tengah persimpangan ini, mereka menemukan ketiadaan batas yang jelas antar menjadi “baik” dan “korup”. [korupsi, anti korupsi, good governance, Pamong Praja, moralitas, etika, Indonesia] I n Kupang, the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, warnings against corruption adorn the desks, walls, and windows of government offices. Tips are part of the crime of CORRUPTION! Honey today be- comes Poison tomorrow ATTENTION. DO NOT OFFER/RECEIVE DONATIONS IN ANY FORM These are but two examples of a plethora of such warnings. The first statement was printed on a sticker issued by Indonesia’s Corruption Erad- ication Commission and affixed to a bathroom door at the mayor’s office. I found the second message taped to a door at the Department of Pub- lic Works. The messages were somewhat redundant, for in the late 2000s, when I conducted my field research, civil servants in Kupang’s city-level bureaucracy were well acquainted with the anticorruption slogans that had permeated every level of the civil service for over a decade. The evils of corruption figured prominently in the speeches that superiors gave dur- ing Monday-morning roll calls, in Friday seminars in the main city-level office, and in mandatory civil-servant trainings. Few civil servants needed convincing as to the “poisonous” nature of corruption. Yet what corruption actually entails was far less clear to many civil ser- vants. For this reason, the visible reminders scattered throughout offices tried to elucidate its definition: “tips are part of the crime of corruption,” “do not offer/receive donations in any form.” Rather than merely foster- ing agreement with Indonesia’s anticorruption discourse, these statements helped civil servants recognize corruption in everyday bureaucratic work. When I conducted my research, Kupang’s civil servants were still ad- justing to drastic changes in the Indonesian governmental administra- tion. These changes were part of far-reaching reorganizations that re- sulted from the popular reform movement known as Reformasi, which in 1998 forced President Suharto to step down after 32 years of author- itarian rule. 1 Although Suharto had promised a “clean government” at the start of his presidency, his regime ultimately became notorious for AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 663–676, ISSN 0094-0496, online ISSN 1548-1425. C  2016 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/amet.12382