The Culture of Corruption
Jinnah in his inaugural address to the Constituent Assembly of
Pakistan on August 11, 1947 warned the nation of the plague of corruption. Today
it is the hottest topic in Pakistan from drawing room to parliament.
Corruption
has been a concern in all civilizations, from ancient India,
Egypt, Mesopotamia China, Greece, Rome, through to our times. All religions warn against corruption and endorse honesty.
Artists, songwriters, film makers and conscientious
journalists have exposed corruption. Bob Dylan Habib Jalib, George Grosz,
A.R.Nagori have given us unforgettable words and images, inspiring to the
honest, and ignored by the corrupt. Corruption tours are offered in Chicago, Prague
and Mexico City There are museums of corruption in Paraguay, Ukraine and the
United States. Yet the tenacity of corruption remains unshaken.
While
corruption in developing countries is well known, it is more disguised in
developed countries, where “kickbacks” can be tax exempt as ‘business
expenses’. As Kautilya wrote in Arthshastar,
his famous guide for rulers, “it is impossible to not try and taste
honey if its put on the tip of the tongue”.
Its
pervasive presence can be gauged by the euphemisms for corruption in every
language: ‘You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’; ‘under the table’ in
English, ‘dessous de table’ in French, and ‘pengar under bordet’ in Swedish.
Goods can ‘fall off the back of a lorry’ or ‘slip through the cracks’. The
Americans offer ‘back handers’. In
Russian parties ‘come to the agreement’ - ‘dogovorit’sia’.The Japanese poetically speak of “the black
mist”- kuroi kiri. The Koreans ‘give goods in secret’ - noemul, the Chinese offer ‘the back door ‘zou hou mie, or offer Chaqian or tea
money. Tea money is used in many countries – ‘poul e chai’ in Iran and
Afghanistan, ‘ashaan ash-shay’ in
Egypt, ‘chai pani’ in Pakistan., a cup of coffee in Syria – ‘finjaan
‘ahwa’ and in Brazil ‘um cafezinho’ , cash for soup or ‘chorba parasi’ In Turkey. In Swahili
one asks for ‘a small thing’ - ‘kitu kidogo’ and in Italian ‘offer
a little push’ – ‘spintarella’. In Greece one is offered a ‘fakelaki’ or
envelope, similar to Pakistan’s villified
“lifafa’ journalists. In Pakistan
large building projects involve a
peti – one lakh or khoka- one crore, to be given to the building control
authority for approving architectural plans, terms also used in India. Honest people may feel pressured to give in
to bribery.
Corruption
requires an agreement for secrecy from both parties. Kautiliya says, “Just as fish
moving under water cannot possibly be found out either as drinking or not
drinking water, so government servants employed in government work cannot be
found out taking money.”
The
Turks say ‘balik bashtan kokar’ - a fish starts to stink at the
head, suggesting corruption at the
top is the root cause. However, one may
search for more endemic causes for corruption. Increasingly, the measure of a person’s worth
is by commercial success instead of character. Marx says money “transforms fidelity into infidelity, love
into hate, hate into love, virtue into vice, vice into virtue, servant into
master, master into servant, idiocy into intelligence, and intelligence into
idiocy”.
Corruption has permeated all institutions of society from
the small vendor to big businesses, educational institutions, courts of law,
law enforcers, sports and even within families who falsify birth certificates
of their children to get admission to schools. Some propose it is because we
have moved away from religion, the regulator of personal morals.
Most agree that corruption
flourishes because penalties are not enforced. The Muhtasib of the early Muslim
empires, was appointed to regulate
weights, money, prices, public morals, the cleanliness of public places
including the cleanliness of eating houses and public baths , the supervision
of schools, instruction, teachers, and students, general public safety, the
circulation of traffic, the standard of crafts,
doctors and apothecaries. It’s difficult to imagine such power today would
be incorruptible.
Marx suggests people need to feel embedded in community
rather the work place. “A man who is estranged from himself and his fellow men
cannot possibly be virtuous”.
Durriya Kazi
March 12, 2021
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