Daily Times

Asif Zardari wants to delete his infamous speech. Maria Sharapova wants to wash away the drug from her blood samples. Volkswagon wants to erase faked reports about the emission level of its cars. Memories may be short but nearly everything we say is archived and google-able. Thus it is amazing how people from the most diverse backgrounds keep on becoming the victim of the age-old human folly of greed. From politics to sports to corporate world the epidemic of getting carried away by your own infinite desire is repeatedly on display. Politics, of course, was always the best breeding ground for this seed but somehow the recent announcements in the game of tennis, cricket and football has really made one debate that does more information and education lead to a more civilised and ethical world or does it lead to more creative ways of dodging the system to get ahead?

The main problem is the definition of wrongdoing. Zardari is aghast at the ‘wrong’ treatment being meted out to Dr. Asim Hussain; Zardari is also upset over the interpretation of his famous speech about teaching a lesson to those trying to corner him and his party. Thus for Zardari, who has got away with every allegation of crime for years, this sudden tightening of the noose is totally ‘immoral’, ‘illegal’ and ‘unethical’. That is what happens when a wrong becomes a norm and right becomes wrong. Zardari is openly admitting that Dr. Asim whom he appointed as state minister and advisor was as he says: “Asim is a childhood friend and my family doctor and is an innocent rabbit afraid of his own shadow.” For him appointing his best friend on a post is not corruption; for him being allegedly involved in billions of rupees of fraud does not make a person criminal.

The other defence that Zardari and his party have is that if the PML-N has got away with all kinds of corruption, why is the PPP being targeted. Thus every time his friend or brother-in-law is held there is a statement against the military/rangers, against government or whoever dare encroaches on Zardari domain. And all this from the safe offshores of Dubai and Washington where he is waiting for these threats to work before he returns. Unfortunately, none of that has worked lately. He has, therefore, now said that his speech was meant for his political opponents and not the armed forces. With the PML-N he has started to say that he does not want them to be investigated. Clearly, the Zardari definition of good and bad is highly customised to suit the situation.

Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion and the world’s highest-paid female athlete, announced that she tested positive for the recently banned drug, Meldonium at the Australian Open. She admitted to taking the drug but said that she was not aware of it containing a banned substance. That itself is a denial of the truth. The very fact that she is an educated and intelligent female, the very fact that she has a team of over 30 people, including doctors, physio-therapists, coaches and lawyers, who would be constantly advising and informing her about medicines, and the fact that this medicine is not available in the USA and had to be imported from Europe makes these excuses hard to believe. To add to this sad untruth is the fact that she tried to gain sympathy by explaining how sick she has been with a family history of diabetes and thus needed this medicine. However, no amount of explanation will justify this negligence on the basis of ignorance. The problem with a qualified confession is that the qualification will always create more controversy and add more shades of grey on the qualifier.

In the corporate world one of the biggest and most respected names in the automobile industry VW Volkswagen has finally admitted to cheating the consumer by deceiving them through false emission standards. It has been dubbed the “diesel dupe”. In September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many VW cars being sold in America had a “defeat device,” or software, in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The German car giant has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the U.S. The engines had computer software that could sense test scenarios by monitoring speed, engine operation, air pressure and even the position of the steering wheel. When the cars were operating under controlled laboratory conditions — which typically involves putting them on a stationary test rig — the defeat device software appears to have put the vehicle into a sort of safety mode in which the engine ran below normal power and performance. Once on the road, the engines switched out of this test mode. When they were caught they apologised and started withdrawing 11 million cars that were supposed to have been fitted with these devices.

These examples show how the pressure of obtaining maximum with minimum effort has made mockery of the richest, the dirtiest, the most respectable and the most famous. Politicians like Asif Zardari never admit to any crime due to a system both legal and judicial that creates concessions for the rich and powerful in our society. However, in more accountable societies the race for staying at the top in the industry or in the sport has made people crack all codes of ethics. For Sharapova it was knowing that she had limited time left as a top player that made her commit this blunder. For Volkswagen it was the chance to become number one automobile manufacturer that made them resort to such deception.

The similarities all over the world are that the lure of ‘more and more’ is one of the biggest reasons why the mighty fall from the pedestal. The dissimilarities are that while in the west the systems of check and balance ensure minimisation of such instances, in the developing world the absence of these systems ensures the maximisation of these instances. The likes of Zardari are the majority ruling the country, while the likes of Sharapova and Volkswagen are in minority in their respective fields. While what has happened to Sharapova and Volkswagen will definitely restraint many people and companies with similar inclinations, what has happened to Zardari will encourage many aspirants to follow the ‘role model’ in the belief that ‘might rules right’ is the way to go and grow.

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