The corruption card

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Corruption has played a significant role in our history. It has come up again and again at critical times, at moments which mark transition points in our political narrative. And these transitions, from democracy to dictatorship, have frequently heralded the start of another era during which we are pushed further back – into a greater state of disarray.

Right now, we must ask if we are standing once more at that unstable place where tectonic plates move, and an earthquake shakes the area all round. In many ways we have already been prepared for the quake that could lie round the corner. We have been warned that there is really no choice but to prepare for it; told in reassuring tones that things will be better afterwards and we will be rescued from the grips of dangerously immoral leaders.

The storyline is a good one. It is easy to believe. As has happened before, we have reached that point where we are exhausted by the shenanigans of our political leaders, from one term into the next. In this frame of mind it is easy to persuade us that we need change and that powerful forces in the country are at hand, ready to tow us to safety.

In times of crisis it is hard to think. It is far easier to simply allow someone else to take charge and to handle matters, in the hope that they will handle them effectively. It is this very human need to think in terms of the immediate and to accept would-be solutions that has in the past delivered us into the hands of dictatorships. We saw this in the 1950s, in the 1970s and once more at the end of the 1990s as we bade farewell to a decade of turbulent, distasteful democracy. What came in the place of poorly functioning democratic rule has, however, not been pleasant either.

We saw the ruthless elimination of the Left in the 1950s, leaving a gaping political vacuum as dissent was stamped out. The dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s, which in so many ways shaped the country we live in today, created a specific kind of polity. This polity was shaped by a particular interpretation of religion, polarity along the lines of belief, and far greater brutality than had ever been known before. Once again, after 1999, we saw political parties being deliberately weakened and also the growth of terrorist violence that has created deep scars; these scars will not heal quickly – perhaps never even fully heal.

Of course, corruption weakens and destroys as well. It makes governance far less effective and eats into the soul of a country. It is unfortunate however that we take up the issue only as a tool to meet other goals and desires. Corruption must be tackled at the political level by the political system itself. Essentially, this means parliament. We need a commitment to set up stronger laws to check wrongdoing and ensure tax payment. This cannot be imposed by external forces. As has happened before, these forces operate essentially to meet other purposes and fulfil other agendas. And it is a fallacy to believe corruption can really end with the takeover of any other group.

It is also crucial to keep in view that we need a wider effort against corruption. The problem lies everywhere, and not just with specific individuals or specific groups. The bottom tiers of governance are corrupt – so is business and many other spheres of life. There can be no one answer to all these problems. The political and work culture needs to change and this can only be a process, not a single task.

It is, therefore, difficult to understand how it is assumed that a simple change in who holds the reins of power will be sufficient to push back corruption and usher in a ‘clean’ government. This has not happened in the past and there is no reason to believe it will happen now. In fact, the ongoing crisis has only illustrated the hypocrisy and senselessness that lie behind much of the doings on our political field of play.

Change very rarely comes in when it is brought about solely from the top. It arises from changes within society and at the tiers that stand at its foundation. This would mean education and the infrastructure that serves people. There have been examples from other countries which show how a meaningful education can help people combat political corruption by making more demands, asking more questions and playing a bigger role in matters of decision making.

We need to see this happen in our country. A cosmetic setting up of local governments is not enough. Nor is a cosmetic pretence of change or promises that cannot be delivered on.

We have made the same mistakes again and again in the past. There is a risk that we will make them again today. Even in the presence of a media that consists of dozens of television channels, it is too easy to put across an essentially narrow vision of events and fail to offer people the diversity of opinion that can assist informed choice and the way things seem to be unfolding now, there may be more questions of choice.

The manner in which power operates in the country and the places where it lies has also held back the process of accountability in the past, because certain power bases cannot be touched and because there is a reluctance to in any way rock the existing system in case this rocking motion becomes a catalyst to jolt the order in a far more dramatic manner and use the chaos to usher in change directed from particular quarters.

We need to watch out for this. But the truth is that even when we know what is happening, we are essentially powerless to do very much about it. Our political forces seem just as powerless. The fact that some amongst them are apparently engaged in playing games of strategy of their own does not help matters at all. It simply makes everything a little more murky and a little more complicated. And it adds to the problems which have prevented anything resembling good governance from taking root in our country as it moves from one decade to the next.

The short periods during which improved governance has been offered have not lasted long enough to leave a deeper impression. This is unfortunate at many different levels. We have through our history seen too many periods of misfortune, with each one – which often begins with a pledge to make things better – ending in fact in a worsening of reality. The political leaders who are playing such a major role in the course of events taking place now need to take a little time out from their public rallies and instead turn to their books so that they can look back into the pages of history and gain a better understanding of what has happened before – and why it must not happen again.

We need to build a stronger country and we need to combat corruption. But how we achieve this and the motives that underpin all that we do are almost as essential as the final end in itself. It would be foolish to pretend this is not the case.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com