SURABAYA, http://WARTAGLOBAL.ID — For three days this week, the ballroom in Surabaya was filled with uniforms, name tags, and a single, uncomfortable truth.
From July 1 to 3, 2026, 272 senior Immigration officials from across Indonesia sat in the same room. Not for a routine meeting. Not for a photo op.
They were there to be told, directly, that the way they work has to change. And the Directorate General of Immigration invited the one institution Indonesians associate most with that change to deliver the message: the Corruption Eradication Commission, KPK.
Calling KPK In, Not Waiting For Them To Come
The headliner was Nensi Natalia, Head of KPK’s Gratification Control Task Force.
In most news, KPK appears after the handcuffs. This time, they came before.
Nensi didn’t lecture. She laid out prevention.
"Guard your integrity. Avoid conflicts of interest. Report your assets on time. And if someone offers you gratification, report it," she told the room.
The target was clear: stop problems at the source. At the passport counter. At the visa desk. At the moment a citizen meets an Immigration officer.
The DG’s Warning: "We Are Watched At Every Step"
Hendarsam Marantoko,
Director General of Immigration, opened the forum. His tone left no room for interpretation.
"Integrity and compliance must be the main foundation in every immigration task and function," he said.
"Because the public does not only judge our results. They judge our process."
That sentence matters. Immigration is the face of the state to foreigners and to Indonesians. Every delay, every "extra fee," every cold shoulder is seen, filmed, and posted within hours.
Hendarsam pushed back against the idea that compliance is just for auditors.
"Internal compliance must not be seen solely as a supervisory or punitive function. It must become a living work culture, from top leadership to frontline officers."
The Toolkit: SPIP, SOP, and a Hotline That Must Work
This was not a motivational seminar.
The curriculum was technical and direct.
First, SPIP— the Government Internal Control System. Designed to catch risks of maladministration before they become scandals.
Second, the Code of Ethics.
An anti-corruption work culture, written into daily targets.
Third, SOPs.
No more "discretion." Follow the procedure or explain why not.
Fourth, the Whistleblowing System.
Optimized, and expected to be used.
The message: if you see something, say something. And it will be followed up.
To make sure this isn’t an echo chamber, Immigration also brought in outsiders. *BPKP* sent Moch. Fachrudin, Director of Political and Law Enforcement Oversight. *The Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia* sent member Robertus Na Endi Jaweng. Internal and external oversight, in one room.
The Closing Order: Take It Home
On Friday, Hendarsam ended with an order, not a closing remark.
To every Regional Office Head and Head of Technical Unit: implement this in your office. Now.
There will be periodic evaluations. But the real metric is not on a spreadsheet.
"Going forward, the success of the immigration institution will be measured objectively based on the level of public trust we earn," he said.
His final line:
"Let us make this momentum a real step to strengthen immigration governance that is clean, transparent, accountable, professional, and oriented toward quality public service."
ANALYSIS
This is Immigration admitting a hard reality: public trust is the currency now.
Inviting KPK into training is a smart, preemptive move. It signals, "We will fix this ourselves."
But training rooms don’t issue passports. Counters do.
The next six months will tell if this was a cultural shift or just another three days in Surabaya. Citizens won’t remember the slides. They will remember if the line moved faster, if the process was clearer, and if they were treated with respect.
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