The relationship between foreign policy and diplomacy with efforts to eradicate corruption consciously or not consciously has become a challenge for almost all countries in the world. Cases of corruption have gone public, especially after the corruption became a global issue in recent years. In general, corruption is defined as the abuse of public office for personal interest.
Corruption, however, was once considered a positive function for modernization and economic growth. Unfortunately, the negative impact of corruption on development is widespread. Researches found no significant positive effect of corruption on economic growth in democratic countries; it even destroys the economy of non-democratic countries seriously.
That was said by Nur Rachmat Y., a faculty member of UGM Department of International Relations and researcher at UGM Institute of International Studies. Speaking in the seminar 'The Importance of Foreign Policy and Diplomacy in Combating Corruption', which was held at UC UGM recently, Nur Rachmat said that as a form to eradicate corruption that has overstepped state boundaries, each state begins to work together to create a mechanism of international cooperation in combating corruption. This mechanism has also been included in important foreign policy of the country, including the UNCAC (the United Nations Convention Against Corruption), which initiated the International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9, the OECD (Organization for Economic and Development) Convention, International Transparency, and some other cooperation.
These cooperation certainly show the extent of the seriousness of countries in eradicating corruption. The seriousness has grown from traditional diplomacy to bilateral cooperation, multilateral and also public diplomacy which is expected to get a positive response from the community and policy makers in the countries they are targeting.
According to Nur Rachmat, foreign policy and diplomacy, or public diplomacy in this case, actually has been vis-a-vis corruption. This shows that the solution is at a crossroads, between being a tool that can enhance the image or even just becoming an illusion that will show that, in reality, corruption cannot be eliminated. "It is because political interests that exist in the government of a country have great potential to weaken the nation’s development," Nur Rachmat said.