Understanding corruption
Monday, 14 July 2008
Air Commodore Muhammad Zakiul Islam ndu acsc (Retd)
HOW does one define and understand corruption. Although it is much easier to be comprehended, it is equally difficult to put up a definition. According to the Wikipedia, "Corruption, when applied as a technical term, is a general concept describing any organised, interdependent system in which part of the system is either not performing duties it was originally intended to, or performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system's original purpose. Its original meaning has connotations of evil, malignance, sickness, and loss of innocence or purity."
This is going by the classical definition of the term. There are different variants of corruption. In the more mundane way, "political corruption, or the dysfunction of a political system or institution" has also the connotation "in which government officials, political officials or employees seek illegitimate personal gain through actions such as bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement." It all sounds familiar and it says it all. One does not have to be a genius or a rocket scientist to understand corruption. But now days, it is the learned lawyers who are telling us what constitutes corruption and what does not.
But even a very popular concept could be seriously flawed at times. I grew up and went to school in a village, about seven miles away from the Sadar of a Sub-Division (now district). I had a friend of mine whose father was a Mukhtar (Lawyer) at the Munsiff Court of the Sub-Division. This gentleman maintained two establishments, one in his village home where he had vast landed property, retinue of servants, his family and the entire household. The other one was at the Sadar where he had a modest house (Basha) for living and for carrying on with his legal practice. Most of his clientele were poor village folks -- farmers, small traders and fishermen who would go to him for their legal cases. Most often, the clients would defer their payment to this gentleman, and every so often the payment wound be not in cash but in kind from the produce of the farms, orchards or catch from the rivers. It was a perfect balance and none seem to demur or grudge against it.
But my point is somewhere else. To all of us toddlers in the elementary school, my friend's father was a 'GhooshKhor' -- a bribe taker. The poor fellow who happened to be the first boy of the class would have his pride demolished to the ground, so to say, and would often blush to the point of tears. No matter how much he tried to explain that his father a was a practising lawyer and not a salaried government employee, and as such he was entitled to receive his remuneration from his client like any other professional, no one would listen to him or try to understand or accept the fact. A stigma perhaps, and my friend and his family lived under that stigma all their life.
Why blame the ignorant, under -- aged toddlers! Very wrongly, this is the perception even today among young and old, literate and illiterate, urban and non-urban, alike. But that is not to say that funny money does not flow through the labyrinth of the tendons, tahsildars, peshkars and others; or judgment cannot be purchased as a commodity through improper or inappropriate means. My experience dates back to the early fifties and my friend's father started his legal profession during the British Rule. The myth goes on!
On the other end of the spectrum, think of the high level corruption indulged in by the high and the mighty in the government, starting from high up in the ruling party and flowing down even to the lower echelon of union leaders who have amassed massive fortune and pauperised the nation. Perhaps, the public sector and corruption has an inherent nexus between them.
Stories of corruption in the departments of law enforcement, railway, food, land settlement, customs and excise and construction and building are almost primordial and legendary. Although there is a general loath and apathy against such ill practices, there has never been a strong social movement, or resistance to eradicate the vice from the society. Most who abhorred such malpractices, at best, personally refrained themselves from doing so and advised their near ones to stay away. There is no denying of the existence of an interesting mindset that many a parents would be rather reluctant and hesitant to enter into matrimonial arrangement of their wards with people in the enforcement, customs and similar fields. But there will be very fewer examples where even the staunchest and the most upright of personalities did not succumb at the giving-end at one time or the other in his life Although it was generally known that such a vice exists in the government, and there were laws against it, the whole idea has come to the forefront with quantification and gradation of corruption as an internationally recognised menace and its bad effect on the overall growth and development of the economy and the country as a whole. With the publication of the Indices and findings of various survey and studies, the issue has assumed bigger dimension in the national and international arena.
But this is not to suggest that since corruption is rampant and all pervading, it is somewhat inevitable or inescapable. No. It is not like oxygen. We can live without corruption if we want to. We have to train ourselves and train our body and mind, and soul to stay away from it. We ought to teach our children, our friends and our neighbours and make them aware of it. It will take time and that time span will not be an eternity. In the present drive, the results may not be instantaneous, but good effect is bound to come forth through legal means and through a moral-building programme.
Even after all the hue and cry, the recent observation by the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) is that there hasn't been much of a change in the corrupt practices. In fact, the net has widened and new modes and methods have been invented. Corruption is a multi-headed hydra! You chop of one head, it grows in another side. Perhaps, a local story may be of relevance here. There was certain King somewhere in Bengal and one of his 'Wazir' (minister' became notoriously corrupt. When the matter was brought to the attention of the King, he banished the Wazir to a nearby riverside and tasked him to count the number of waves of the river and submit a daily report to the royal court. A harsh punishment, indeed. But the wicked 'Wazir' was undaunted. He set up his camp at the river bank and soon erected a bamboo barricade across the river. All boatmen crossing the barricade had to pay toll to the men of the 'Wazir' as the plying of boats was hampering carrying out his official duty of counting the waves.
Moral of the story: Cunning, ingenious and wicked --- all the important traits that one would find in a corrupt mind which took full advantage of the King's simplicity and the boatmen's ignorance!
It might sound to be a defeatist mental syndrome, but the fact of the matter is, we might not able to eliminate corruption by a stroke. While big, white collar corruption could be reined and restricted through constant vigil, improvement in governance, better transparency and application of law and exemplary punishment, corruption as a psychological phenomenon has to be fought through a psyche war. That war has to be waged in the hearts and minds of the people right at the grassroot and family level to eliminate a vice which has assumed an all too familiar and all -encompassing dimension. We have to motivate the likes of the CNG Driver who recently admitted that a "good policeman" can be managed by Tk.50.00 and a "bad policeman" resorts to law. This harrowing concept of good and bad must be eliminated first and foremost, and steps must be incorporated in our lesson plan of changing the mindset and character building.
We need to go back to the basics. In the military, every new Cadet is taught an Honour Code: I shall not cheat, steal nor tell a lie, nor shall I tolerate any one amongst us doing so. Military institutions all over the world follow a similar honour code and an officer is expected to live by the code all his life. Perhaps a similar code could be propagated through our elementary schools, our education system, civil service and other areas of national life. Results are bound to come, we need the resolve but we also need patience.
I started this piece with the story of legal practitioners. Herewith, a footnote: Two inmates in the Garden of Eden got involved in a serious altercation. So heightened was the brawl that at one stage, one of the inmate threatened the other with legal action.
"Very good" said the other gentleman, "but where will you get a lawyer here!"
HOW does one define and understand corruption. Although it is much easier to be comprehended, it is equally difficult to put up a definition. According to the Wikipedia, "Corruption, when applied as a technical term, is a general concept describing any organised, interdependent system in which part of the system is either not performing duties it was originally intended to, or performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system's original purpose. Its original meaning has connotations of evil, malignance, sickness, and loss of innocence or purity."
This is going by the classical definition of the term. There are different variants of corruption. In the more mundane way, "political corruption, or the dysfunction of a political system or institution" has also the connotation "in which government officials, political officials or employees seek illegitimate personal gain through actions such as bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement." It all sounds familiar and it says it all. One does not have to be a genius or a rocket scientist to understand corruption. But now days, it is the learned lawyers who are telling us what constitutes corruption and what does not.
But even a very popular concept could be seriously flawed at times. I grew up and went to school in a village, about seven miles away from the Sadar of a Sub-Division (now district). I had a friend of mine whose father was a Mukhtar (Lawyer) at the Munsiff Court of the Sub-Division. This gentleman maintained two establishments, one in his village home where he had vast landed property, retinue of servants, his family and the entire household. The other one was at the Sadar where he had a modest house (Basha) for living and for carrying on with his legal practice. Most of his clientele were poor village folks -- farmers, small traders and fishermen who would go to him for their legal cases. Most often, the clients would defer their payment to this gentleman, and every so often the payment wound be not in cash but in kind from the produce of the farms, orchards or catch from the rivers. It was a perfect balance and none seem to demur or grudge against it.
But my point is somewhere else. To all of us toddlers in the elementary school, my friend's father was a 'GhooshKhor' -- a bribe taker. The poor fellow who happened to be the first boy of the class would have his pride demolished to the ground, so to say, and would often blush to the point of tears. No matter how much he tried to explain that his father a was a practising lawyer and not a salaried government employee, and as such he was entitled to receive his remuneration from his client like any other professional, no one would listen to him or try to understand or accept the fact. A stigma perhaps, and my friend and his family lived under that stigma all their life.
Why blame the ignorant, under -- aged toddlers! Very wrongly, this is the perception even today among young and old, literate and illiterate, urban and non-urban, alike. But that is not to say that funny money does not flow through the labyrinth of the tendons, tahsildars, peshkars and others; or judgment cannot be purchased as a commodity through improper or inappropriate means. My experience dates back to the early fifties and my friend's father started his legal profession during the British Rule. The myth goes on!
On the other end of the spectrum, think of the high level corruption indulged in by the high and the mighty in the government, starting from high up in the ruling party and flowing down even to the lower echelon of union leaders who have amassed massive fortune and pauperised the nation. Perhaps, the public sector and corruption has an inherent nexus between them.
Stories of corruption in the departments of law enforcement, railway, food, land settlement, customs and excise and construction and building are almost primordial and legendary. Although there is a general loath and apathy against such ill practices, there has never been a strong social movement, or resistance to eradicate the vice from the society. Most who abhorred such malpractices, at best, personally refrained themselves from doing so and advised their near ones to stay away. There is no denying of the existence of an interesting mindset that many a parents would be rather reluctant and hesitant to enter into matrimonial arrangement of their wards with people in the enforcement, customs and similar fields. But there will be very fewer examples where even the staunchest and the most upright of personalities did not succumb at the giving-end at one time or the other in his life Although it was generally known that such a vice exists in the government, and there were laws against it, the whole idea has come to the forefront with quantification and gradation of corruption as an internationally recognised menace and its bad effect on the overall growth and development of the economy and the country as a whole. With the publication of the Indices and findings of various survey and studies, the issue has assumed bigger dimension in the national and international arena.
But this is not to suggest that since corruption is rampant and all pervading, it is somewhat inevitable or inescapable. No. It is not like oxygen. We can live without corruption if we want to. We have to train ourselves and train our body and mind, and soul to stay away from it. We ought to teach our children, our friends and our neighbours and make them aware of it. It will take time and that time span will not be an eternity. In the present drive, the results may not be instantaneous, but good effect is bound to come forth through legal means and through a moral-building programme.
Even after all the hue and cry, the recent observation by the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) is that there hasn't been much of a change in the corrupt practices. In fact, the net has widened and new modes and methods have been invented. Corruption is a multi-headed hydra! You chop of one head, it grows in another side. Perhaps, a local story may be of relevance here. There was certain King somewhere in Bengal and one of his 'Wazir' (minister' became notoriously corrupt. When the matter was brought to the attention of the King, he banished the Wazir to a nearby riverside and tasked him to count the number of waves of the river and submit a daily report to the royal court. A harsh punishment, indeed. But the wicked 'Wazir' was undaunted. He set up his camp at the river bank and soon erected a bamboo barricade across the river. All boatmen crossing the barricade had to pay toll to the men of the 'Wazir' as the plying of boats was hampering carrying out his official duty of counting the waves.
Moral of the story: Cunning, ingenious and wicked --- all the important traits that one would find in a corrupt mind which took full advantage of the King's simplicity and the boatmen's ignorance!
It might sound to be a defeatist mental syndrome, but the fact of the matter is, we might not able to eliminate corruption by a stroke. While big, white collar corruption could be reined and restricted through constant vigil, improvement in governance, better transparency and application of law and exemplary punishment, corruption as a psychological phenomenon has to be fought through a psyche war. That war has to be waged in the hearts and minds of the people right at the grassroot and family level to eliminate a vice which has assumed an all too familiar and all -encompassing dimension. We have to motivate the likes of the CNG Driver who recently admitted that a "good policeman" can be managed by Tk.50.00 and a "bad policeman" resorts to law. This harrowing concept of good and bad must be eliminated first and foremost, and steps must be incorporated in our lesson plan of changing the mindset and character building.
We need to go back to the basics. In the military, every new Cadet is taught an Honour Code: I shall not cheat, steal nor tell a lie, nor shall I tolerate any one amongst us doing so. Military institutions all over the world follow a similar honour code and an officer is expected to live by the code all his life. Perhaps a similar code could be propagated through our elementary schools, our education system, civil service and other areas of national life. Results are bound to come, we need the resolve but we also need patience.
I started this piece with the story of legal practitioners. Herewith, a footnote: Two inmates in the Garden of Eden got involved in a serious altercation. So heightened was the brawl that at one stage, one of the inmate threatened the other with legal action.
"Very good" said the other gentleman, "but where will you get a lawyer here!"