September 10, 2025 | 12:02 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Immanuel Ebenezer shows that corruption is now institutionalized at the Manpower Ministry. Lustration is needed.
DEPUTY Minister of Manpower Immanuel Ebenezer is a perfect illustration of the classic saying, “a wolf guarding the sheep.” Appointed to a position in which he should have protected workers, he exploited it to enrich himself. This type of corruption has happened repeatedly in the Manpower Ministry.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Ebenezer a suspect for extortion over the processing of occupational health and safety (OHS) certification. He was detained on Wednesday, August 20, 2025. A total of 14 people were arrested, 11 of whom were subsequently named suspects, including Ebenezer. Their method of extortion was primitive: making it difficult to obtain certification. If applicants wanted the process to go quickly and smoothly, they had to pay grease money.
OHS is designed to protect workers. The certification is produced to ensure that employees and employers are able to understand and implement the necessary provisions. But the fact is that the Manpower Ministry, which should be looking after the interests of workers, made it difficult to obtain.
The ministry that should be protecting workers became an extortionist, treating their safety like a commodity. Ebenezer not only broke the law, but also betrayed the very group of people whose interests he should have been fighting for. If the KPK’s accusations are true, he colluded with people in the ministry who were processing OHS certificates in exchange for money.
Rather than paying the standard Rp275,000 OHS certification fee, workers had to hand over up to Rp6 million. According to the KPK, the Rp81 billion in proceeds from this extortion went to officials in the Manpower Ministry. The fact that this practice continued for so long shows that it was carried out systemically. These officials changed from serving the public to extorting the public.
If corruption has become systemic, it is worth taking another look at the idea of lustration. This term, from the Latin word lustratio, meaning purification, is known as a way of removing a corrupt generation. The institutionalized chain of lawbreaking must be broken using the radical method of eliminating officials likely to be involved and who have been enjoying the proceeds of this crime.
Officials from the same ministry have been involved in a number of previous corruption cases. The first related to the system for protecting Indonesian migrant workers. Then there was the extortion and taking of gratuities in the processing of Placement of Foreign Workers Plans (RTPKA). This repeated corruption in such a short timeframe shows there is a serious problem in this ministry.
President Prabowo Subianto could order an independent and transparent audit of all structural officials at the Manpower Ministry. He could also provide full authority to the KPK, without any intervention, to ensure that any senior ministry officials involved—no matter what their background or political allegiances, including former ministers—are held accountable.
Replacing only one person at the Manpower Ministry will not be enough because corruption and abuse have become institutionalized and systemic. Many wolves have eaten the sheep they should have been protecting. Lustration, or the elimination of a generation, should be considered for this ministry.
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