Daily Times

Corruption seems to be a common virus in South Asia. Pakistan, of course, stands tall as far as corruption records are concerned but India and Bangladesh are also countries plagued with this disease yet they seem to be doing much better than us on many fronts. Corruption of some form exists in all parts of the world, developed and underdeveloped, and it has an impact on the performance and effectiveness of the individual, organisation or country. However, Pakistan has the distinction of nurturing all types of corruption at all levels and thus is facing an incomparable bottomless pit of decline in its socio-economic and political performance.

The variety of types of corruption includes moral, political, legal and intellectual corruption. Most of these types do exist in every society but the degree to which they pervade the system is what determines the ability of society to be functional or dysfunctional. In most developed countries we find incidences occurring from time to time but the system of accountability is strong enough to keep it at a manageable level. The problem with our country is that corruption is so rampant that the distinction between what is and what is not corruption has become so blurred that many offences just go unnoticed in the plethora of wrongdoings going on.

Political corruption starts with the system of election. Voting is bogus — in rural areas the big landlord forces the poor to support his candidates and, wherever required, the ballot boxes are pre-filled. The 2008 elections, that were supposed to be fair considering that the ruling government was upstaged, turned out to be another farce. Around 3.5 million votes, i.e. 45 percent of the total votes were fake and are now under the process of being replaced with genuine ones. The fact that almost half the voting was illegal places a huge question mark on the validity and legality of this parliament and government. However, the public feels that there is no point contesting this legality as it will only result in more confusion and unrest, so why bother; this is the attitude of the people who, despite knowing something is wrong, are unwilling to rise against it, raising questions on the ethics and values of our society.

The other mass corruption area is legal corruption, where misuse of office and position is a norm. From direct embezzlement of funds to allocation of huge projects to cronies and appointments of unmerited individuals to crucial positions, there is endless room for creating havoc in the system of running the country. In all these areas, the present government has broken all records. Regardless of the importance of the job and regardless of the competence of the person, all you need is to be in the good books of the president or the prime minister and you are heading ministries and industries you have no clue about. Each major ministry, be it energy, education, health or railways, is in the hands of people who are as much capable of handling these posts as Walt Disney is of handling NASA. Thus we witness the abject deterioration of nearly every single area of governance and public welfare.

Another area of gross mishandling is the deployment of policies detrimental to national interest. Allowing Americans to use your bases for their own military designs and being complicit with Americans to continue with drone attacks despite a resolution in parliament are some of the examples of policy embezzlement to enrich their prospects of continued aid laundering. Also involved in this is intellectual corruption where the government sponsors well known writers, analysts and media anchors to twist the stories and facts and present them in a way to justify unjustified policy stances.

Indian corruption has traditionally been in big contracts. The Bofors scandal during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, the recent mega telecom scandal where it was estimated that almost $ 50 billion were lost due to the underselling of licences and the mega corruption during the Commonwealth Games held this year in Delhi are some glaring examples of the big contract kickbacks and payoffs India is trying to deal with. However, the difference is that when the media and public create a hue and cry the government is forced to take action and, in the cases mentioned above, the people responsible for these misdeeds have been removed from their posts. In the case of Pakistan, scandal after scandal is exposed in the media with names, facts and figures, but the government does not bother taking any action against these individuals, thus encouraging further wider and deeper corruption.

Similarly, in Bangladesh, the government revolves around the two party scene of Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Zia and each blames the other for massive corruption to throw the other out. However, due to a robust non-government sector led by Professor Muhammad Yunus and other active players, the socio economic development of Bangladesh has definitely been much better than Pakistan.

The major difference is that both India and Bangladesh have not defaulted on performance. India, with its economy galloping at nine percent, and Bangladesh at almost seven percent, do not have problems of deep debt, deficits and unemployment. In Pakistan, corruption is so relentless that the economy is reeling under a government bent on taking money out of all development projects to sponsor their extravagance. Thus when Anna Hazare initiates a movement against corruption in India he is demanding a more rigorous anti-graft bill only, as he cannot fault the government on not delivering on all fronts. But in Pakistan no bill or amendment would solve the problem; it has to be a removal of all the proven corrupt politicians that will give a chance to this country to stop the frightening downward spiral.

The difference in the mindset of the politicians in the two countries is not as much a factor of integrity as it is of accountability. In India, the government knows that if it does not perform it will be out. The BJP’s government in the election before last was thrown out by the 300 million rural poor who resented the ‘Shining India’ slogan and voted them out. In Pakistan, the politician is confident that he has rigged the electoral system especially in the rural areas so badly that regardless of his performance he will be back in power. For the nation to put an end to this endless corruption they must resolve that they will ensure that they do vote and that their vote gets the right candidate into power. As they say, the power of the people is greater than the people in power.

The writer is a consultant and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com