Effective cure for corruption not yet in sight
Friday, 20 November 2009
H. Siddiqui
A global news service sometime ago had a report on corruption in Bangladesh. It noted that an entrepreneur who wanted to start an export company last year had to wait more than a year for getting the necessary licence and had to return to government offices multiple times, each time paying bribe to a different person. What is also worrisome, as pointed out by the president of a representative body of the business in Dhaka, is the mere perception amongst the filthy rich in Bangladesh that they can buy success through corruption, and need not be efficient or honest.
Reports like that in international media were not surprising for many people. The Transparency International (TI) in its global corruption perception index between 2004 and 2007 gave indications about what direction Bangladesh was heading (2008: Ranked 147 out of 180; 2007: Ranked 167 out of 179; 2006: Ranked 156 out of 163; 2005: Ranked 158 out of 158; 2004: Ranked 145 out of 145). Did the government have a role in this TI trend? Sure. Was it the only party responsible for corruption? No. The latest TI report about corruption in Bangladesh gives somewhat a different picture. This is otherwise encouraging.
However, a vicious cycle in which corruption begets corruption and creates a society where one is either a giver or taker of bribe -- both unlawful deeds, prevails in Bangladesh. Very few Bangladeshis can claim to be outside this noxious embrace. Truly, corruption has lost its colour and badge in our society where the difference between right and wrong, moral and immoral is increasingly becoming blurred. In our society today, money matters. Thus, many parents would rather have their daughter marry someone who is dishonest and yet makes enough "extra" income (another name for bribe) through corruption.
What this does is something ruinous to any society. Corruption pushes the honest and incorruptible ones (in spite of the doom and gloom environment in Bangladesh, there are plenty of those noble souls in every sector) to feel suffocated as if they don't belong there and look for opportunities outside the country. And once the door to outside employment or immigration opens up for them, they don't want to return to Bangladesh. Foreign governments and employers are, however, willing to accept only the best and smartest ones that they can get. It is not difficult to conclude that corruption eventually leads to a brain-drain phenomenon, leaving behind a society in which the mediocre and less bright ones rule and run the society.
Sycophancy becomes a sure way for upward mobility in job and social status. Crime thrives on corruption, eventually both acting like parasites eat away the fabric of the civic society to a status of no-return. Most people in that condition cannot even differentiate the exceptions to the rule from the norms.
In spite of such an exhibition of moral decadence, probably everything is not lost. Our young generation is seeking a change for the better -- away from the dark days of the past when most of the high-stake government business deals were made not inside but inside the Secretariat. It is their overwhelming support for the Mahajote (Grand) Alliance that made the big difference in the last election. They voted hoping that the new government would fight corruption, thus changing the ominous perception from a corruption-infested society to one that promised honesty. But will their aspirations for a corruption-free society ever materialise? It would be unwise to expect miracles so soon.
One of the major declared aims of the present government is to weed out corruption, thus encouraging foreign and local investment, especially in the private sector, which it hopes will open up more employment opportunities. It is a challenging task. This is because the government inherits a highly bureaucratic system. This has to be streamlined in delivering results or resolving issues fast because it is highly inefficient and quite corrupt. Corruption is pervasive, structural, and persistent due, in part, to the high degree of state involvement in the economy and the weakness of the rule of law.
The current Mahajote government ought to redress these issues and make an environment that is investment-friendly. It must earn the trust of people who are sick of corruption by correctly identifying and punishing corrupt government officials. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has to be energised. The government has to empower the ACC sufficiently so that the latter could function as the most powerful watchdog against corruption in Bangladesh. All the ACC officers must also be well paid so that in carrying out their tasks they are not themselves corrupted. The corrupting influence of partisans, politicians, student leaders, 'chatar dal' (boot-lickers of the ones in power) and 'mastans' (musclemen) need to be clamped down.
Crime and corruption have a very caustic effect on everything they touch within the society. Individual citizens have a vital role in weeding out corruption. They can make it or break it. They must know that those who perpetrate injustice and those who tolerate the same are both guilty parties. They can only act as responsible citizens by refusing to be drawn into corruption and also acting as eyes and ears of the society against this vice.
Is there a future for Bangladesh getting out of this mighty mess of immorality and corruption? We don't know but do feel that something ought to be done fast because if we don't, we all become a nation that breeds and sustains a system that is so bad that only those who are buried under the ground are better off than those living on it. But the living ones deserve better!
A global news service sometime ago had a report on corruption in Bangladesh. It noted that an entrepreneur who wanted to start an export company last year had to wait more than a year for getting the necessary licence and had to return to government offices multiple times, each time paying bribe to a different person. What is also worrisome, as pointed out by the president of a representative body of the business in Dhaka, is the mere perception amongst the filthy rich in Bangladesh that they can buy success through corruption, and need not be efficient or honest.
Reports like that in international media were not surprising for many people. The Transparency International (TI) in its global corruption perception index between 2004 and 2007 gave indications about what direction Bangladesh was heading (2008: Ranked 147 out of 180; 2007: Ranked 167 out of 179; 2006: Ranked 156 out of 163; 2005: Ranked 158 out of 158; 2004: Ranked 145 out of 145). Did the government have a role in this TI trend? Sure. Was it the only party responsible for corruption? No. The latest TI report about corruption in Bangladesh gives somewhat a different picture. This is otherwise encouraging.
However, a vicious cycle in which corruption begets corruption and creates a society where one is either a giver or taker of bribe -- both unlawful deeds, prevails in Bangladesh. Very few Bangladeshis can claim to be outside this noxious embrace. Truly, corruption has lost its colour and badge in our society where the difference between right and wrong, moral and immoral is increasingly becoming blurred. In our society today, money matters. Thus, many parents would rather have their daughter marry someone who is dishonest and yet makes enough "extra" income (another name for bribe) through corruption.
What this does is something ruinous to any society. Corruption pushes the honest and incorruptible ones (in spite of the doom and gloom environment in Bangladesh, there are plenty of those noble souls in every sector) to feel suffocated as if they don't belong there and look for opportunities outside the country. And once the door to outside employment or immigration opens up for them, they don't want to return to Bangladesh. Foreign governments and employers are, however, willing to accept only the best and smartest ones that they can get. It is not difficult to conclude that corruption eventually leads to a brain-drain phenomenon, leaving behind a society in which the mediocre and less bright ones rule and run the society.
Sycophancy becomes a sure way for upward mobility in job and social status. Crime thrives on corruption, eventually both acting like parasites eat away the fabric of the civic society to a status of no-return. Most people in that condition cannot even differentiate the exceptions to the rule from the norms.
In spite of such an exhibition of moral decadence, probably everything is not lost. Our young generation is seeking a change for the better -- away from the dark days of the past when most of the high-stake government business deals were made not inside but inside the Secretariat. It is their overwhelming support for the Mahajote (Grand) Alliance that made the big difference in the last election. They voted hoping that the new government would fight corruption, thus changing the ominous perception from a corruption-infested society to one that promised honesty. But will their aspirations for a corruption-free society ever materialise? It would be unwise to expect miracles so soon.
One of the major declared aims of the present government is to weed out corruption, thus encouraging foreign and local investment, especially in the private sector, which it hopes will open up more employment opportunities. It is a challenging task. This is because the government inherits a highly bureaucratic system. This has to be streamlined in delivering results or resolving issues fast because it is highly inefficient and quite corrupt. Corruption is pervasive, structural, and persistent due, in part, to the high degree of state involvement in the economy and the weakness of the rule of law.
The current Mahajote government ought to redress these issues and make an environment that is investment-friendly. It must earn the trust of people who are sick of corruption by correctly identifying and punishing corrupt government officials. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has to be energised. The government has to empower the ACC sufficiently so that the latter could function as the most powerful watchdog against corruption in Bangladesh. All the ACC officers must also be well paid so that in carrying out their tasks they are not themselves corrupted. The corrupting influence of partisans, politicians, student leaders, 'chatar dal' (boot-lickers of the ones in power) and 'mastans' (musclemen) need to be clamped down.
Crime and corruption have a very caustic effect on everything they touch within the society. Individual citizens have a vital role in weeding out corruption. They can make it or break it. They must know that those who perpetrate injustice and those who tolerate the same are both guilty parties. They can only act as responsible citizens by refusing to be drawn into corruption and also acting as eyes and ears of the society against this vice.
Is there a future for Bangladesh getting out of this mighty mess of immorality and corruption? We don't know but do feel that something ought to be done fast because if we don't, we all become a nation that breeds and sustains a system that is so bad that only those who are buried under the ground are better off than those living on it. But the living ones deserve better!