The problem with the Muslim world

Corruption as a way of life, a cultural mainstay, even a genetic trait among the people and nations of the developing world is a myth that has been cultivated by a post-colonial hangover that just won't give up. Unfortunately for decent, hard-working and honest people everywhere, the reality is that corruption is not endemic to the developing world. It is endemic to the human world. Further proof was provided this week with the indictment of US Senator Ted Stevens (Republican from Alaska), and the long overdue resignation of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert -- in the mire of a litany of corruption charges.

On August 1, Olmert was grilled by Israeli police for the fourth time since May this year. This time the interrogation lasted over three hours. Meanwhile, a day earlier, Senator Stevens was indicted on seven charges of felony. Both men deny wrongdoing, and both are far from the fringe of their countries' public sectors. Olmert is his country's elected leader, his ineffectiveness having less to do with his own personal failings and more with the generational drag that Israel's third-generation politicians are collectively experiencing after the end of the Sharon era. On the other hand, while Stevens is not a central leader of his party, he is the longest-serving Republican senator in US Senate history. His potential defeat this November was unthinkable till this indictment.

Clearly, corruption is not just an African, or South Asian problem. Clearly, corruption is not just existent in emerging giants like Brazil, India, China (all tied for No72 on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index) and Russia (at No143). Perhaps, most refreshingly, it seems corruption is not just endemic to Muslim countries like Indonesia (also 143), Bangladesh (162), and Pakistan (138).

Defenders of the models of public-sector integrity operating out of Washington DC and Tel Aviv will say the United States (20) and Israel (30) may have individual incidents of corruption--but such cases are few and far between. This would be more believable if big corporation didn't have lobbyists crawling all over Western capitals.

The truth is that the corruption index is probably a list that unfairly deepens the perception issue for countries that already have bad reputations. Officials receiving bribes, stealing public funds, and misbehaving is a reality linked to human nature, and not to places, or races. Human nature doesn't need to be submitted to quite so easily, however. Ultimately, whatever the empirical truth about corruption is, we don't know, and for the foreseeable future, we can't know. What we do know is that there is enough corruption in all parts of the world for us to draw lessons from the unfortunate collective experiences of states and societies, and how they deal with this challenge.

Is there something to be learnt by Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia -- the three largest Muslim-majority countries hovering at the wrong end of the Corruption Index?

Sure there is. Unfortunately, we can be almost certain that the dominant retrogressive forces in the Muslim world will draw the wrong lessons from the troubles of Stevens and Olmert. The chance to revel in the glee of being able to point the finger at the "corrupt" Israeli system and the "corrupt" American government will simply be too seductive to outweigh any chance of introspection. This is tragic, and typical of the disease afflicting the world of those that claim adherence to Islam.

Corruption may indeed be universal, but how a state deals with it speaks volumes about the quality of society, culture, economy and polity that its people cultivate. The issue of how a society deals with a state that doesn't know its limits is important because it reflects the values system upon which the state is based.

Why should the corruption troubles of a US senator and an Israeli prime minister spark introspection among Muslims? Simple. The manner in which American democracy and Israeli democracy are dealing with the misuse of the state and its resources -- prosecuting court cases, having policemen interrogate elected prime ministers -- this doesn't sound or smell like a process endorsed by a "great satan." Quite the opposite, it sounds a lot more like the kind of accountability that was prevalent in the pioneering age of Islamic governance -- the era of Umar ibn al-Khattab. This is no Hollywood movie, it's real.

Let's be clear, none of the spuriously labelled democracies and republics in the Muslim world are about to adapt that model of governance. We can be even more equivocal about the hopelessness offered by terrorist and extremist groups that claim to seek that societal justice and equality. They are operating well outside the bounds of sane, or credible, discourse, much less Islamic. Equality and justice cannot be forged in the blood of innocent people -- no matter what faith they belong to. Any one of their thousands of irrational rationalisations for the spilling of innocent blood, is outweighed by the simplest and clearest Quranic injunctions, and Ahadith -- all affording the highest priority to the sanctity and sacredness of human life. It is clear that neither the "legitimate," nor the "illegitimate" Muslim political discourse is interested in building accountable states.

The desire for such accountability is instead found in the constitutions of Western republics, in the courtrooms of Europe and in the streets, television studios and university halls of America. What's more, the "sonay pay sohaaga" moment? It is this: The only voices for dealing with corruption in the Muslim world are paid for, amplified, and facilitated by the money of taxpayers from the West. Donor after donor repeatedly begs these bastions of Islam to fix their corruption issues. Decades into the dance, donors have provided millions in grants and loans to governments across the Muslim world to take anti-corruption measures and pursue clean government. Tired, fatigued, exhausted from the constant nagging, lenders and donors have even stopped using the moral argument against corruption -- no doubt afraid of offending the sensibilities of Muslim leaders, who clearly cannot be moved by appeals to morality. Discarding the moral argument as ineffective, donors have been reduced to invoking economic growth as the primary victim of corruption. This is truly going from the ridiculous to the sublime -- in real life.

What then is the response of the Muslim world to a global tsunami of citizen sentiment against corruption? To a moral code that couldn't be clearer? To a model that could not be more inspiring? To millions in aid and millions more in cheap loans? How does the Muslim world counter corruption?

Other than the self-defeating finger-pointing at Transparency International's methodology and the odd corruption case in the West, citizens of the Muslim world don't have a lot to offer. While Israeli cops waltz into their Prime Minister's home to interrogate him for three hours, Muslims offer their politicians retroactive immunity through dictatorial fiat. While justices in the US that are the equivalent of district and sessions judges indict the senior-most Republican senator, entire Supreme Court benches in the Muslim world get "fired."

Life is an episode of The Apprentice in the Muslim world. It is so bad it is sometimes almost comical. Like the situation in Bangladesh recently, where a new government was created in the name of countering corruption. They locked up the twin towers of corrupt governance there -- Khaleda and Hasina. Then they locked up another 25,000 people. When someone stopped to count, they realised they are running out of space in the jails. Meanwhile, corruption in Bangladesh has not stopped. Far from it. According a recent BBC report, it has in fact increased. Almost comical.

If the ideas of non-corrupt government, of accountable political leadership, and of individual and collective integrity were not so central to the Islamic ethos--perhaps the state of anti-corruption efforts in the Muslim world would also be almost comical. Sadly, there's nothing funny about the state of Muslim states.



The writer is an independent political analyst. Email: mosharraf@gmail.com