Whys and hows of tolerating corruption?

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2019 released by the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) on January 23 downgraded Pakistan’s status from 117 in 2018 to 120 in 2019 among 180 nations. Pakistan’s score of 33 in 2018 was lowered to 32 which is well below the global average of 43. Based on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives, the yearly CPI report of TI is considered an important yardstick to judge a country’s status in terms of financial and administrative corruption. This should be a source of great alarm because the PTI-led government in the last 15 months has not been able to tackle to the monster of corruption. The government has rejected TI’s report as manipulative but in retrospect it was PTI Chairman Imran Khan who, while in opposition, used to quote TI as a credible source that exposes corruption in Pakistan. For a couple of days, there will be some hue and cry on the CPI report where the opposition will blame the PTI-led government for promoting corruption whereas the government will accused the PML-N and the PPP of patronising corruption while in power. In the end, the issue of corruption will not only remain but intensify further because the Pakistani society tolerates corruption, misuse of authority and nepotism while totally disregarding the fact that such acts have no place in our religion. As the second largest Muslim country created in the name of Islam, Pakistan has miserably failed to bridge the gap in theory and practice. Despite being a Muslim majority state, corruption has a recognised constituency in all the regimes coming to power, particularly since the disintegration of the country in 1971.

The whys and hows of tolerating corruption need to be analysed from three perspectives. First, principally there cannot be any rationale or logic to tolerate corruption, yet the ground realities in Pakistan are enough to motivate a large number of people who possess any authority or power to engage in kickbacks, bribery, money-laundering and other forms of financial corruption because the system lacks accountability and transparency. When the taxpayer’s money is misused, the culture of bribe, regardless of the claims made by the PTI government, tends to deepen. This gives the answer to the why question. In the last five decades due to the erosion of values and ethics, an environment of indifference was created. Thus the people tolerated corruption because their work pending in different government departments and offices would not be done unless they became a part of the corrupt system.

Second, the absence of strong work ethics acts as a deterrent against corruption, nepotism and misuse of authority. The dearth of proper training at the school level and creating awareness amongst students about the menace of corruption fails to educate the young generation to refrain from acts which are ethically and morally wrong. Surprisingly, the religion of Islam has zero tolerance for corruption and nepotism, but its followers happen to be corrupt. The culture of deceit, opportunism, hypocrisy and lies in the Pakistani society is another reason why people tolerate corruption.

Tolerating corruption in Pakistan is a stark reality because such a menace has acceptability at the grassroots level. It is not only those who belong to the upper strata of society who are corrupt but corruption has permeated deep down at all levels. It is strange that in a country where hundreds of thousands of people perform religious duties like Umrah and Hajj, spend billions of rupees every year for charity and fill the mosques during prayers, corruption is not only endorsed by a vast majority of people but those who are not corrupt or resist corruption are sidelined and made a mockery of. The paradigm shift in corruption in Pakistan has happened in the last five decades since 1971.

Third, how corruption is tolerated is not difficult to gauge. Those who think of corruption as a necessary evil are convinced that it is futile to resist because unlike in the past when the minority was corrupt and isolated, the majority is also now a part of a disease. This is the root cause of poverty and social and economic backwardness.

The concept that if a person holding the highest position of authority is not corrupt then the country will not be corrupt is meaningless. If the person sitting at the top and holding the position of prime minister is not corrupt but instead tolerates corruption taking place under his nose, he too is equally corrupt. Corruption at the micro and macro level cannot take place unless there is a support system at the top. How people tolerate corruption can also be explained by citing various examples of financial scandals that persist in public sector organisations across Pakistan.

The ongoing crisis in various food items like wheat, sugar, edible oil and so forth takes place when there are mafias who create an artificial shortage of such items and make billions of rupees. A couple of months ago, the price of tomatoes reached more than 200 rupees a kilo as it became a source of minting money. One is taken aback at the fact that Prime Minister Imran Khan recently said that he had “stopped reading newspapers and TV channels”. The media, despite its fault lines, acts as the eyes and ears of the government and society.

Corruption is a mindset that has permeated the genes of the majority of the people of Pakistan who have neither any regret nor any conscience. As a result Pakistan ranked at 152 on the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2019. Corruption is also for shattering the international image of a country, which is also reflected in the falling position of its passport. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), established during the regime of General Musharraf, claims to have retrieved billions of rupees of embezzled money, yet the graph of corruption is not stagnating.

There is no shortcut to eradicating corruption as it cannot be effectively dealt with by mere statements, speeches and slogans; or through the measures of NAB. A massive operation at the grassroots, middle and higher level needs to be launched where zero tolerance for corruption becomes a policy of the state. And, it is not only the state which needs to play a proactive role for replacing the culture of corruption with merit, but society is also responsible in this regard. The culture of opportunism and hypocrisy needs to be replaced with the culture of integrity, merit and truthfulness. Only then can Pakistan get rid of the menace of corruption through a leadership which is clear and single-minded and doesn’t take U-turns. This will create hope and confidence among the people for a better present and future.

If the people of a country are habitual to tolerating corruption, nepotism and misuse of authority, there cannot be any hope for betterment. When corruption permeates the genes of the people and the vast majority tolerates the culture of bribe then society is anything but doomed.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2020.

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