CABINET COUTURE vs. CORRUPT CULTURE: Unveiling The Nation's Rich Aunties' Birkin Obsession

Just a few moments ago, a unique instagram account popped up, stealing a cute username of @CabinetCouture_IDN and a satirical tagline ‘from rakyat taxes to runway pieces’. This-so-called Cabinet Couture later leaked the officials’ luxury goods collections which laudably enraged the rich aunties. Wait... what do you mean by rich aunties? Of course, the official’s wives! What else could it be, duh. Now the tension is red, just a shade lighter than their lipstick shade.

Welcoming the late hero, KOMDIGI to the rescue! KOMDIGI or KemKOMDIGI is the abbreviation of Kementerian Komunikasi dan Digital a.k.a Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. KOMDIGI has picked a side, and surely not on Cabinet Couture’s. Instead, KOMDIGI has blocked said account. No worries, being the unbeatable diva she is, Cabinet Couture reappeared with a new username of @CabinetCouture_Season2 with an opening post revealing Ms. Meutya Hafid’s Bottega Veneta bag that’s worth 10 months salary of a regular Jakartan worker, love it!

P.S. Ms. Meutya Hafid: Minister of KOMDIGI.

#whostherealqueenhere

When Birkins Meet Milles

Birkins distract the wives, while the husbands kiss the shiny reflection on their Richard Milles.

The trademark Hermes left in the luxury goods market is too impactful, making its Birkin bag one of its most desirable collections. Almost ensured that every wife of an official owns at least one of these cuties. Now, what is the ‘Birkin equivalence’ for the guys section? You’re right, they’re watches! Though, make sure that the price goes far above just hundreds of rupiah. Rolex? Possible, not enough though. Patek? Good guess. Yet, here comes the real big guy, Richard Milles!

Pejabat only loves ‘em when they are almost worth a house in Menteng.

East Kalimantan Governor, Rudy Mas’ud, is famous for his extravagant Milles collections. One Richard Mille series RM-005 Rose Gold with an approximate price of 25 billion rupiah and the other is Richard Mille RM 69 with an approximate price of 13.5 billion rupiah, adooorbs! Weirdly enough, his watch prices were revealed just after the news on the budget for governor’s official vehicle procurement (pengadaan mobil dinas) reaching 8.5 billion rupiah.

Surprise, surprise! Ika Damayanti Fatma Negara, a DPRD member whose 2023 State Officials Assets Report valued 99 mio rupiah, owns a 33 mio rupiah LV bag, a third of her whole asset! She must’ve lived so frugally to afford it, there’s no way she earned if not through hard work!

Pause.

Oh no, what smell is this? Is it the stinky odor of… corruption?

They Don’t Scream Quiet Luxury, Rather Shout at The Folk’s Agony

Hey, let’s not lash out with negative suspicion! Maybe they just want to fit in to Gen-Z’s motto on quiet luxury. You know what they say about high-end brands? Luxury is quiet. It doesn't need to shout for attention—it reveals itself in the subtle beauty of simplicity.

Oh, I know someone who would be really good at luxury-brand-themed story telling! If her husband loves putting billions on his hands, then Syarifah Suraidah Harum, or more well-known as Bunda Harum, is the fashion icon from Indonesia’s technocrats line up!

Bunda Harum, now a member of the People's Representatives Council of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR), is reputable for her glamorous fashion style. Often identified as ‘noni Belanda’ style, she defends it as her signature fashion preferences. When meeting a pedagang sayur on the small roads or even during a *‘blusukan’ agenda, her Chanel bag is never out of sight. What a fashion-dedicated queen.

If Bunda Harum, with her always-a-little-extra fashion preferences, could show up just anytime in the middle of the citizen, why should it matter?

It should matter. As Indonesia’s wealth gap keeps on increasing, bringing a bag that costs once or twice a poor family’s whole house is equivalent to apathy. As one little family should work relentlessly or even beg just for a one day meal, the officials are carelessly showing off their runway-worth fashion collection.

Yes, it's her fashion style. But she’s a public servant that’s meant to serve the nation, not looks.

*Blusukan is an Indonesian term for impromptu, unannounced visits made by leaders or officials to local communities to gather unfiltered feedback from everyday citizens (Cabinet Secretariat, 2017).

New York’s Tower of Secrecy, but Make it Local (ft. The Public Choice Theory)

However, national technocrats’ hedonism ain’t unique. The NY Time’s 2015 Towers of Secrecy series exposed corrupt agents using New York’s properties to hide dirtily acquired funds.

Since the financial crisis of 2008, 30 percent of all New York’s condo sales were purchased through foreign anonymous entities—leaving the area as a ghost property (GFI, 2014). In 2024, it was revealed that the purchase of two luxury apartments valued $14 million was done by the former Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbataar Batbold, using the money earned from his corruption scheme (DOJ, 2024). This phenomenon reveals how common the practice of luxury good purchases is as an act of money laundering. Déjà vu?

As it is widely assumed that regime officials are selfless and only driven by the public interest, this naive assumption is debunked by The Public Choice Theory. This theory states that the official’s self-interest fueled their actions (Buchanan & Tullock, 1962). Corruption is supposed to be an individual act. Due to their collective self-interest, it is no more individualistic just as they say: Competition is at the bottom. At the top, people help each other.

So, why luxury goods, technocrats? Or should we say… kleptocrats?

Kleptocrats and The Notorious Dior Bag Scandal

What’s the best way to define technocrats with these weird luxury good obsessions?

Criminal? Or is it… Thieves? Maybe it’s… Corruptors?

Quoting Sabrina Carpenter, I know a cuter word for it! Kleptocraaats〰

Kleptocrats, as goofy as it sounds, is an actual word defining a leader who makes himself or herself rich and powerful by stealing from the people (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). Even worse, it also depicts technocrats whose desire to own luxury items can be a primary motivation for corrupt behaviour. Truly no different to a kid wanting to do anything for candy!

So… back to answering the question: Why luxury goods?

Luxury goods are analogous to a shortcut to sequester your most illegal funds. Who cares about the law when you have the key to its biggest flaw? The luxury market’s weakness on money laundering possibilities start with the international standards against money laundering – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations that don’t fully cover all luxury sectors by excluding personal luxury items, art, and lavish transports (Transparency International, 2017).

Has anyone heard of The Dior Bag Scandal? Oh honey, that scandal is a literal paragon to the term ‘kleptocrats’! South Korea’s former First Lady Kim Keon-Hee shook up the country’s government leadership through a $2,200 luxury handbag. The case was sparked by suspicious footage showing a person handing in the former First Lady a 3-million-won Dior bag. In turn Kim was heard responding in Korean: “Don’t keep doing this,” and “Never buy something as expensive as this.” This is against the South Korean anti-graft law that states: It is illegal for public officials and their spouses to receive gifts worth more than 1 million Korean won ($750) in one sitting (Time, 2024).

Corruptors’ Dumb Ways to Die A.K.A Flexing

New York this, South Korea that, how about Indonesia’s corruption game?

Say less, bet an-hour-rant on this topic won’t even be enough.

Starting off strong with the legendary Rafael Alun Trisambodo, Indonesia’s former tax official who was convicted as a two-decades-of-experience corrupt agent who has received gratification of 16.3 billion rupiah. Did he submit himself? In our dream, duh! His only wrong step is having a childish kid that did some crime here and there, with his little hobby of flexing on the social media about his father’s Rubicon and Harley Davidson. Poor Trisambodo :(

On to the next criminal, Eko Darmanto, Indonesia’s former customs official who accepted gratification valued 18 billion rupiah. How was he exposed again? No other than his flexing habit on social media, including his private plane. A dumb way to die indeed.

Next on, a former land official, Sudarman Harja Saputra was removed from the office due to his wife’s flexing act. With her elegant Hermes Birkin Sellier 25 in Black Epsom Leather with Gold Hardware costing around 400 million rupiah, said woman raised public suspicion on Saputra’s wealth sources. With his asset being reported valued for 14.7 billion rupiah dominated by land and building valued for 13.99 billion rupiah, he went under investigation (CNBC, 2023).

The Impact They Neglect and The Potential Funds They Couldn’t Collect

Being excluded from anti-money-laundering-regulations, luxury brands may be too enjoying the profit they make, forgetting the impact of the dirty acquired funds being involved in their business as Hermes’ image is now tainted by the kleptocrats' silly behavior of saving assets in handbags. Every official who owns a Hermes, a Richad Mille, or a Rubicon Jeep will be suspected by the public of having corrupt tendencies.

Oh, what could possibly go wrong with letting the corruptors and kleptocracy roam around so freely in Indonesia? This is where the government’s carelessness results in the country’s income’s ghost deficit. Corruption can yield significant fiscal benefits as research suggests that revenues are higher in countries perceived to be less corrupt. Data showed that the least corrupt governments collect 4% of GDP more in taxes than those at the same level of economic development with the highest corruption levels (IMF, 2019). Hence, protecting the corruptors is a deadly choice made and decided by the officials to willingly slow down its own country’s economic growth.

The Horizon Where Cabinet Couture Meets Corrupt Culture

If Cabinet Couture steals looks not money,

Do the Cabinet Members thieve to make them look fancy?

Some might say, there are some officials that own these luxury goods before they get into politics, or maybe they just have other businesses that support their lifestyles. Yet, why are just now when Cabinet Couture starts revealing the prices of their wardrobe, the technocrats are panicking and start becoming aware to not be ‘flexing’? Isn’t it weird when the caution just rises when their cabinet friends have been taken off of their titles due to corruption investigation? Remember what The Chainsmokers say?

If we go down then we go down together.

How scary that must sound to them.

Hence, a little message to the public servants out there, serve the public, not looks.

References:

Cabinet Secretariat of The Republic Indonesia. (2017). ‘Blusukan’ Aims Listen to People’s Aspirations, President Jokowi Says. (2017). Setkab.go.id.

Guzman. (2024, January 24). South Korea’s ‘Dior Bag Scandal’, Explained. TIME.

Heywood & Ebrard. (2017). Tainted Treasures: Money Laundering Risks in Luxury Markets. Transparency International.

Mauro et al. (2019). The True Cost of Global Corruption. International Monetary Fund.

Sef. (2023, March 22). Buntut Istri Flexing Harta, Kepala BPN Jaktim Dicopot. CNBC Indonesia.

Shughart. (n.d.). Public Choice. EconLib.

Story & Saul. (2015, February 7). Towers of Secrecy: Stream of Foreign Wealth Flows to Elite New York Real Estate. The New York Times.

United States Attorney’s Office. (2024, March 26). United States Seeks Forfeiture of Former Mongolian Prime Minister's Luxury New York City Apartments Purchased with Proceeds of Corruption Scheme. DOJ.

Zhao. (2014, July 8). Why New York City Real Estate May Be The New Dirty Money Bastion. Global Financial Integrity.

CABINET COUTURE vs. CORRUPT CULTURE:

Unveiling The Nation’s Rich Aunties’ Birkin Obsession

Just a few moments ago, a unique instagram account popped up, stealing a cute username of @CabinetCouture_IDN and a satirical tagline ‘from rakyat taxes to runway pieces’. This-so-called Cabinet Couture later leaked the officials’ luxury goods collections which laudably enraged the rich aunties. Wait... what do you mean by rich aunties? Of course, the official’s wives! What else could it be, duh. Now the tension is red, just a shade lighter than their lipstick shade.

Welcoming the late hero, KOMDIGI to the rescue! KOMDIGI or KemKOMDIGI is the abbreviation of Kementerian Komunikasi dan Digital a.k.a Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. KOMDIGI has picked a side, and surely not on Cabinet Couture’s. Instead, KOMDIGI has blocked said account. No worries, being the unbeatable diva she is, Cabinet Couture reappeared with a new username of @CabinetCouture_Season2 with an opening post revealing Ms. Meutya Hafid’s Bottega Veneta bag that’s worth 10 months salary of a regular Jakartan worker, love it!

P.S. Ms. Meutya Hafid: Minister of KOMDIGI.

#whostherealqueenhere

When Birkins Meet Milles

Birkins distract the wives, while the husbands kiss the shiny reflection on their Richard Milles.

The trademark Hermes left in the luxury goods market is too impactful, making its Birkin bag one of its most desirable collections. Almost ensured that every wife of an official owns at least one of these cuties. Now, what is the ‘Birkin equivalence’ for the guys section? You’re right, they’re watches! Though, make sure that the price goes far above just hundreds of rupiah. Rolex? Possible, not enough though. Patek? Good guess. Yet, here comes the real big guy, Richard Milles!

Pejabat only loves ‘em when they are almost worth a house in Menteng.

East Kalimantan Governor, Rudy Mas’ud, is famous for his extravagant Milles collections. One Richard Mille series RM-005 Rose Gold with an approximate price of 25 billion rupiah and the other is Richard Mille RM 69 with an approximate price of 13.5 billion rupiah, adooorbs! Weirdly enough, his watch prices were revealed just after the news on the budget for governor’s official vehicle procurement (pengadaan mobil dinas) reaching 8.5 billion rupiah.

Surprise, surprise! Ika Damayanti Fatma Negara, a DPRD member whose 2023 State Officials Assets Report valued 99 mio rupiah, owns a 33 mio rupiah LV bag, a third of her whole asset! She must’ve lived so frugally to afford it, there’s no way she earned if not through hard work!

Pause.

Oh no, what smell is this? Is it the stinky odor of… corruption?

They Don’t Scream Quiet Luxury, Rather Shout at The Folk’s Agony

Hey, let’s not lash out with negative suspicion! Maybe they just want to fit in to Gen-Z’s motto on quiet luxury. You know what they say about high-end brands? Luxury is quiet. It doesn't need to shout for attention—it reveals itself in the subtle beauty of simplicity.

Oh, I know someone who would be really good at luxury-brand-themed story telling! If her husband loves putting billions on his hands, then Syarifah Suraidah Harum, or more well-known as Bunda Harum, is the fashion icon from Indonesia’s technocrats line up!

Bunda Harum, now a member of the People's Representatives Council of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR), is reputable for her glamorous fashion style. Often identified as ‘noni Belanda’ style, she defends it as her signature fashion preferences. When meeting a pedagang sayur on the small roads or even during a *‘blusukan’ agenda, her Chanel bag is never out of sight. What a fashion-dedicated queen.

If Bunda Harum, with her always-a-little-extra fashion preferences, could show up just anytime in the middle of the citizen, why should it matter?

It should matter. As Indonesia’s wealth gap keeps on increasing, bringing a bag that costs once or twice a poor family’s whole house is equivalent to apathy. As one little family should work relentlessly or even beg just for a one day meal, the officials are carelessly showing off their runway-worth fashion collection.

Yes, it's her fashion style. But she’s a public servant that’s meant to serve the nation, not looks.

*Blusukan is an Indonesian term for impromptu, unannounced visits made by leaders or officials to local communities to gather unfiltered feedback from everyday citizens (Cabinet Secretariat, 2017).

New York’s Tower of Secrecy, but Make it Local (ft. The Public Choice Theory)

However, national technocrats’ hedonism ain’t unique. The NY Time’s 2015 Towers of Secrecy series exposed corrupt agents using New York’s properties to hide dirtily acquired funds.

Since the financial crisis of 2008, 30 percent of all New York’s condo sales were purchased through foreign anonymous entities—leaving the area as a ghost property (GFI, 2014). In 2024, it was revealed that the purchase of two luxury apartments valued $14 million was done by the former Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbataar Batbold, using the money earned from his corruption scheme (DOJ, 2024). This phenomenon reveals how common the practice of luxury good purchases is as an act of money laundering. Déjà vu?

As it is widely assumed that regime officials are selfless and only driven by the public interest, this naive assumption is debunked by The Public Choice Theory. This theory states that the official’s self-interest fueled their actions (Buchanan & Tullock, 1962). Corruption is supposed to be an individual act. Due to their collective self-interest, it is no more individualistic just as they say: Competition is at the bottom. At the top, people help each other.

So, why luxury goods, technocrats? Or should we say… kleptocrats?

Kleptocrats and The Notorious Dior Bag Scandal

What’s the best way to define technocrats with these weird luxury good obsessions?

Criminal? Or is it… Thieves? Maybe it’s… Corruptors?

Quoting Sabrina Carpenter, I know a cuter word for it! Kleptocraaats〰

Kleptocrats, as goofy as it sounds, is an actual word defining a leader who makes himself or herself rich and powerful by stealing from the people (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). Even worse, it also depicts technocrats whose desire to own luxury items can be a primary motivation for corrupt behaviour. Truly no different to a kid wanting to do anything for candy!

So… back to answering the question: Why luxury goods?

Luxury goods are analogous to a shortcut to sequester your most illegal funds. Who cares about the law when you have the key to its biggest flaw? The luxury market’s weakness on money laundering possibilities start with the international standards against money laundering – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations that don’t fully cover all luxury sectors by excluding personal luxury items, art, and lavish transports (Transparency International, 2017).

Has anyone heard of The Dior Bag Scandal? Oh honey, that scandal is a literal paragon to the term ‘kleptocrats’! South Korea’s former First Lady Kim Keon-Hee shook up the country’s government leadership through a $2,200 luxury handbag. The case was sparked by suspicious footage showing a person handing in the former First Lady a 3-million-won Dior bag. In turn Kim was heard responding in Korean: “Don’t keep doing this,” and “Never buy something as expensive as this.” This is against the South Korean anti-graft law that states: It is illegal for public officials and their spouses to receive gifts worth more than 1 million Korean won ($750) in one sitting (Time, 2024).

Corruptors’ Dumb Ways to Die A.K.A Flexing

New York this, South Korea that, how about Indonesia’s corruption game?

Say less, bet an-hour-rant on this topic won’t even be enough.

Starting off strong with the legendary Rafael Alun Trisambodo, Indonesia’s former tax official who was convicted as a two-decades-of-experience corrupt agent who has received gratification of 16.3 billion rupiah. Did he submit himself? In our dream, duh! His only wrong step is having a childish kid that did some crime here and there, with his little hobby of flexing on the social media about his father’s Rubicon and Harley Davidson. Poor Trisambodo :(

On to the next criminal, Eko Darmanto, Indonesia’s former customs official who accepted gratification valued 18 billion rupiah. How was he exposed again? No other than his flexing habit on social media, including his private plane. A dumb way to die indeed.

Next on, a former land official, Sudarman Harja Saputra was removed from the office due to his wife’s flexing act. With her elegant Hermes Birkin Sellier 25 in Black Epsom Leather with Gold Hardware costing around 400 million rupiah, said woman raised public suspicion on Saputra’s wealth sources. With his asset being reported valued for 14.7 billion rupiah dominated by land and building valued for 13.99 billion rupiah, he went under investigation (CNBC, 2023).

The Impact They Neglect and The Potential Funds They Couldn’t Collect

Being excluded from anti-money-laundering-regulations, luxury brands may be too enjoying the profit they make, forgetting the impact of the dirty acquired funds being involved in their business as Hermes’ image is now tainted by the kleptocrats' silly behavior of saving assets in handbags. Every official who owns a Hermes, a Richad Mille, or a Rubicon Jeep will be suspected by the public of having corrupt tendencies.

Oh, what could possibly go wrong with letting the corruptors and kleptocracy roam around so freely in Indonesia? This is where the government’s carelessness results in the country’s income’s ghost deficit. Corruption can yield significant fiscal benefits as research suggests that revenues are higher in countries perceived to be less corrupt. Data showed that the least corrupt governments collect 4% of GDP more in taxes than those at the same level of economic development with the highest corruption levels (IMF, 2019). Hence, protecting the corruptors is a deadly choice made and decided by the officials to willingly slow down its own country’s economic growth.

The Horizon Where Cabinet Couture Meets Corrupt Culture

If Cabinet Couture steals looks not money,

Do the Cabinet Members thieve to make them look fancy?

Some might say, there are some officials that own these luxury goods before they get into politics, or maybe they just have other businesses that support their lifestyles. Yet, why are just now when Cabinet Couture starts revealing the prices of their wardrobe, the technocrats are panicking and start becoming aware to not be ‘flexing’? Isn’t it weird when the caution just rises when their cabinet friends have been taken off of their titles due to corruption investigation? Remember what The Chainsmokers say?

If we go down then we go down together.

How scary that must sound to them.

Hence, a little message to the public servants out there, serve the public, not looks.

References:

Cabinet Secretariat of The Republic Indonesia. (2017). ‘Blusukan’ Aims Listen to People’s Aspirations, President Jokowi Says. (2017). Setkab.go.id.

Guzman. (2024, January 24). South Korea’s ‘Dior Bag Scandal’, Explained. TIME.

Heywood & Ebrard. (2017). Tainted Treasures: Money Laundering Risks in Luxury Markets. Transparency International.

Mauro et al. (2019). The True Cost of Global Corruption. International Monetary Fund.

Sef. (2023, March 22). Buntut Istri Flexing Harta, Kepala BPN Jaktim Dicopot. CNBC Indonesia.

Shughart. (n.d.). Public Choice. EconLib.

Story & Saul. (2015, February 7). Towers of Secrecy: Stream of Foreign Wealth Flows to Elite New York Real Estate. The New York Times.

United States Attorney’s Office. (2024, March 26). United States Seeks Forfeiture of Former Mongolian Prime Minister's Luxury New York City Apartments Purchased with Proceeds of Corruption Scheme. DOJ.

Zhao. (2014, July 8). Why New York City Real Estate May Be The New Dirty Money Bastion. Global Financial Integrity.