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Our corrupt ways
Saturday, September 26, 2009
By Babar Sattar
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.
Transparency International has issued its annual report listing Pakistan amongst the most corrupt nations in the world and has highlighted General Musharraf's National Reconciliation Ordinance as the point when we voluntarily regressed into a state of madness that justifies looters.
While the NRO continues to outrage citizens for perverting the very concept of rule of law, the Holders of Public Offices (Accountability) Bill, 2009 meant to replace the NAB Ordinance is coming to be seen by concerned citizens as a permanent NRO. But our problem of corruption is not limited to the NRO or the new (un)-Accountability Bill, but is much more deep-seated. While we continue to focus on financial corruption that the elites indulge in, we tend to ignore various forms of social and intellectual corruption being practiced in our midst with vigour, which allow financial corruption to exist in the first place. The bane of our existence is a deeply entrenched logic of necessity and the unscrupulous ethic of success it produces wherein the end justifies all means however rotten.
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice you may know that your society is doomed," wrote Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged back in 1957. She could well have been writing about Pakistan today. Have we not started promulgating and justifying laws that indeed redeem and protect the looters? Have we not turned into an economy where becoming middlemen is so much more profitable than indulging in the business of actually producing goods or services? Are we not becoming a nation where mastery of shrewd street-smart ways of dodging work is preferred over investing time and effort to learn the ethic of diligence? Are we not degenerating into a society where honesty and integrity is indeed a burden that retards upward social mobility of the individual infested by these virtues?
Notwithstanding reports of international accountability groups, can we remember a time over the last few decades when ordinary people felt a visible decline in the level of corruption in Pakistan? Have the land transfer departments, the police, the magistracy, the municipal authorities, cantonment boards, public utility providers or the taxation authorities become any less corrupt under any regime? Are we not aware that a patwari, a police inspector or a magistrate cannot sustain himself and his family in the paltry compensation being provided by the state and will indulge in bribery and extortion because he has the power to do so? And while we do nothing about the deformed salary structure that eliminates the possibility of an honest individual surviving in public service let alone attracting fresh talent, we continue to justify graft as an occupational hazard for public officials while also continuing to participate in a system of patronage where huge bribes are paid and favours called to get friends and family members inducted into jobs where the salary is pittance but which bring along the possibility of extracting bribes.
Do we expect an individual, who has paid half a million and used all his political pull to get the job of a sub-inspector that pays around Rs10,000 a month, to derive pleasure from serving the people and the penal justice system? Is a lawyer of dodgy reputation feverishly lobbying to be elevated to the bench in order to get access to means of state patronage, influence and power likely to uphold the rule of law and contribute to the evolution of sensible jurisprudence?
If we continue to sustain a political culture where men of wealth and influence seek to acquire political power only to make more money to fight the next round and dispense state authority and patronage to satisfy the fair and foul demands of their cronies and constituents, what will become of the men of ability and integrity who cannot play this dirty game? This is not to say that in order to address the problem of corruption Pakistan must first be transformed into a fairyland where no one conceives an impure thought and where nobility and virtue prosper unabatedly. But that we need to revamp the rules of the game in this polity to create a social, political and professional incentive structure where ability, integrity and courage to speak candidly is rewarded and not penalized. We will need to understand clearly that every corrupt individual is no lone miscreant but part of a patronage system supported by a cultural and ethical code that places a higher premium on loyalty, subservience and personal allegiance than ability, professionalism and dedication to principle.
The existence of this system of patronage has been made possible not necessarily because of the pawns who physically take bribes, but by the intellectually dishonest who justify and support it with full knowledge that it is wrong and by our collective acquiescence as a society to a morbid value set that is simply unethical. This is not a moral judgment meant to denounce materialism or the desire to promote self-interest. For there is nothing wrong with being driven by material comforts, or considerations of wealth or fame so long as the means are fair. But we need to engender a culture that celebrates fame and fortune when it is the product of personal work and ability. And such value structure then needs to be braced by laws that prevent looters from stealing a fortune or gate-crashing their way into fame and power. The big picture is not meant to justify that there is no work to be done immediately. To stem the rot we need to undo instruments such as the NRO that make stark the gulf between law and the justice it is meant to produce, and prevent the (un)-Accountability Bill from becoming law which is based on the depraved yet simple idea that when all other elites have been molesting this country and getting away with it, why shouldn't politicians be able to make hay while the sun shines.
No one piece of legislation will rid us of the looters and their corrupt ways and not the mightiest court will be able to prevent the abuse of public office until such time that we as a nation refuse to abide by a value set that remains tolerant toward social and intellectual corruption practiced in the name of need, loyalty and expediency. So long as we are willing to justify access to power acquired through dishonesty in any form intellectual, social or financial or access to patronage dispensed by the holders of such power in the name of necessity and ground reality, we will continue to feed the roots that bear the evil fruits of corruption. The logic of necessity that an ordinary citizen uses to justify an ill-gotten favour from a local policeman or politician is the same logic used in the highest echelons of power to rationalize manifest abuse of authority. Unless we refute this logic of necessity that defines our ethic of success collectively as a nation, corruption will continue to thrive and it will become harder to locate men and women of ability and integrity in public life.
Email: sattar@post.harvard.edu
Is judiciary an expection or is as corrupt as a policeman?
IMO, politicinas remain the biggest benificary who receive billions in kick backs.
I wonder how many billions indians have poured in to the pockets of respective ministers, for not building water dams, buying second hand indain busses, allowing air space and transit facility! etc. etc.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
By Babar Sattar
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.
Transparency International has issued its annual report listing Pakistan amongst the most corrupt nations in the world and has highlighted General Musharraf's National Reconciliation Ordinance as the point when we voluntarily regressed into a state of madness that justifies looters.
While the NRO continues to outrage citizens for perverting the very concept of rule of law, the Holders of Public Offices (Accountability) Bill, 2009 meant to replace the NAB Ordinance is coming to be seen by concerned citizens as a permanent NRO. But our problem of corruption is not limited to the NRO or the new (un)-Accountability Bill, but is much more deep-seated. While we continue to focus on financial corruption that the elites indulge in, we tend to ignore various forms of social and intellectual corruption being practiced in our midst with vigour, which allow financial corruption to exist in the first place. The bane of our existence is a deeply entrenched logic of necessity and the unscrupulous ethic of success it produces wherein the end justifies all means however rotten.
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice you may know that your society is doomed," wrote Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged back in 1957. She could well have been writing about Pakistan today. Have we not started promulgating and justifying laws that indeed redeem and protect the looters? Have we not turned into an economy where becoming middlemen is so much more profitable than indulging in the business of actually producing goods or services? Are we not becoming a nation where mastery of shrewd street-smart ways of dodging work is preferred over investing time and effort to learn the ethic of diligence? Are we not degenerating into a society where honesty and integrity is indeed a burden that retards upward social mobility of the individual infested by these virtues?
Notwithstanding reports of international accountability groups, can we remember a time over the last few decades when ordinary people felt a visible decline in the level of corruption in Pakistan? Have the land transfer departments, the police, the magistracy, the municipal authorities, cantonment boards, public utility providers or the taxation authorities become any less corrupt under any regime? Are we not aware that a patwari, a police inspector or a magistrate cannot sustain himself and his family in the paltry compensation being provided by the state and will indulge in bribery and extortion because he has the power to do so? And while we do nothing about the deformed salary structure that eliminates the possibility of an honest individual surviving in public service let alone attracting fresh talent, we continue to justify graft as an occupational hazard for public officials while also continuing to participate in a system of patronage where huge bribes are paid and favours called to get friends and family members inducted into jobs where the salary is pittance but which bring along the possibility of extracting bribes.
Do we expect an individual, who has paid half a million and used all his political pull to get the job of a sub-inspector that pays around Rs10,000 a month, to derive pleasure from serving the people and the penal justice system? Is a lawyer of dodgy reputation feverishly lobbying to be elevated to the bench in order to get access to means of state patronage, influence and power likely to uphold the rule of law and contribute to the evolution of sensible jurisprudence?
If we continue to sustain a political culture where men of wealth and influence seek to acquire political power only to make more money to fight the next round and dispense state authority and patronage to satisfy the fair and foul demands of their cronies and constituents, what will become of the men of ability and integrity who cannot play this dirty game? This is not to say that in order to address the problem of corruption Pakistan must first be transformed into a fairyland where no one conceives an impure thought and where nobility and virtue prosper unabatedly. But that we need to revamp the rules of the game in this polity to create a social, political and professional incentive structure where ability, integrity and courage to speak candidly is rewarded and not penalized. We will need to understand clearly that every corrupt individual is no lone miscreant but part of a patronage system supported by a cultural and ethical code that places a higher premium on loyalty, subservience and personal allegiance than ability, professionalism and dedication to principle.
The existence of this system of patronage has been made possible not necessarily because of the pawns who physically take bribes, but by the intellectually dishonest who justify and support it with full knowledge that it is wrong and by our collective acquiescence as a society to a morbid value set that is simply unethical. This is not a moral judgment meant to denounce materialism or the desire to promote self-interest. For there is nothing wrong with being driven by material comforts, or considerations of wealth or fame so long as the means are fair. But we need to engender a culture that celebrates fame and fortune when it is the product of personal work and ability. And such value structure then needs to be braced by laws that prevent looters from stealing a fortune or gate-crashing their way into fame and power. The big picture is not meant to justify that there is no work to be done immediately. To stem the rot we need to undo instruments such as the NRO that make stark the gulf between law and the justice it is meant to produce, and prevent the (un)-Accountability Bill from becoming law which is based on the depraved yet simple idea that when all other elites have been molesting this country and getting away with it, why shouldn't politicians be able to make hay while the sun shines.
No one piece of legislation will rid us of the looters and their corrupt ways and not the mightiest court will be able to prevent the abuse of public office until such time that we as a nation refuse to abide by a value set that remains tolerant toward social and intellectual corruption practiced in the name of need, loyalty and expediency. So long as we are willing to justify access to power acquired through dishonesty in any form intellectual, social or financial or access to patronage dispensed by the holders of such power in the name of necessity and ground reality, we will continue to feed the roots that bear the evil fruits of corruption. The logic of necessity that an ordinary citizen uses to justify an ill-gotten favour from a local policeman or politician is the same logic used in the highest echelons of power to rationalize manifest abuse of authority. Unless we refute this logic of necessity that defines our ethic of success collectively as a nation, corruption will continue to thrive and it will become harder to locate men and women of ability and integrity in public life.
Email: sattar@post.harvard.edu
Is judiciary an expection or is as corrupt as a policeman?
IMO, politicinas remain the biggest benificary who receive billions in kick backs.
I wonder how many billions indians have poured in to the pockets of respective ministers, for not building water dams, buying second hand indain busses, allowing air space and transit facility! etc. etc.
