The Vicious Circle of Political Corruption

With the extent of corruption as we have in Pakistan, it will not be an exaggeration to say that anything can be done or had in this country if you are able to pay the "right" price. Keep ratcheting up the stake and the "characters" will ultimately buckle and sell their mother/country/honor.... Corrupt elites/ rulers use brazen violation of merit as their ultimate weapon to maintain and bolster their "social controls." The resultant cronyism adversely affects governance and causes the collapse of social delivery infrastructures. This decay goes hand-in-hand with pervasive injustices and atrocities that lead to violence and all types of social strife. Corruption hollows institutions and leads to their total collapse. A country hollowed institutionally cannot survive economically. 

When corruption results in economic collapse and ruins the future of generations, it can be termed as heinous a crime as "genocide." When corruption putrefies the structures of governance, it causes the nation to fail and makes the country susceptible to subjugation before its enemies. In that case, corruption can very rightly be likened to "high treason."

Here I portray the catastrophic effects of high-level/ political corruption graphically.

Who opposes presidential form of government in Pakistan?

Inheritance tax

When Corruption Kills!

In an op-ed piece that appeared in The News of August 1, 2019, I wrote: 

Corruption ... upends lives and shatters dreams. It has a multi-generational calamitous effect. When public sector corruption results in loss of life, its negative consequences can well be compared to those of terrorism. Link here.

I quoted Prof. Michael Johnston of Colgate University to describe systemic corruption, which creates an inexorable feedback loop in which malfeasance at the higher levels of governance intensifies incidence of ordinary bribery, fraud and extortionary practices at the lower levels.

My point was that the rulers can easily find public funds to finance a lavish lifestyle for themselves and to shower favors on their supporters. But they do not want to provide basic infrastructure and facilities for hospital and schools and invest in other essential social services for people. I gave the following examples, which show how the ruling elites' indifference results in catastrophic consequences for individuals, families, communities and generations.

1. On September 1, 2007, a portion of a newly constructed Northern Bypass flyover at Sher Shah, Karachi, collapsed killing at least five people and injuring many others. Among the killed were three sole breadwinners of their families and a young student. 

   

   A few hours after the collapse of the Sher Shah flyover (Source: Dawn)

   The bridge was built at a cost of about Rs. 3.5 billion and was inaugurated with great fanfare just a month earlier by no less than the President of Pakistan. The project was executed by the National Highways Authority (NHA) through the National Logistics Cell (NLC), which had subcontracted it to a private firm. An inquiry committee, later, determined that “neglect” and “design fault” were the root causes of the collapse.
2. On July 2, 2015, a special train carrying soldiers of Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers derailed at a bridge on a canal near Gujranwala that left 19 of its passengers dead and scores injured. 

   

   Rescue operations after the train fell off the bridge (Source: AFP)

   The investigation report attributed the cause of the accident to an ill-maintained railway track whose joints had come loose and to a creaky pre-partition bridge.
   
   A few days later, social media carried a picture taken just before the train’s departure from the Pano Akil Railway Station of one of the officers and his family - all of whom died in the accident. 

   

   The Jadoon family a while before the ill-fated train departed (Source: Twitter)

   The picture depicted a happy family with smiles and hopes of a more rewarding future. But that was never to be because of the action or inaction on part of some corrupt and indifferent people somewhere in some department or bureau.
3. When an overturned oil tanker caught fire at Ahmedpur East near Lodhran in June 2017, more than 100 people died within a few minutes, but dozens more later succumbed to their injuries as there was no standard burns unit in the area hospitals within a couple of hours drive.
4. After the terrorist attack at a mosque in Shikarpur in 2015, scores of people died on the spot, but the death count substantially increased as there was no well-equipped trauma center outside the remote cities of Hyderabad and Karachi.

Professor Johnston believes that just "relying on 'political will' to fight corruption is 'magical thinking'." Then what course of action remains? I think most people will endorse that dealing with corruption requires a multilevel, multi-institutional and multi-dimensional approach – an action plan involving some concerted, concrete and consistent measures. A good example to follow is that of China, which has been quite ruthless in dealing with its corrupt government functionaries. We do not tire of lavishing praise on that country for its spectacular economic progress and development. It's time we also followed China in practice and adopted some of the measures it has taken to tame the monster of corruption and build its institutions.

National Character

National character cannot be built by law. It is the sum of the moral fiber of its individuals. – Herbert Hoover.

In an op-ed, a couple of years ago, I wrote on the role of “leaders” in disseminating values and building next generations’ character. I argued:

The role models for the Pakistani public are leaders tainted with various scandals of character and integrity. The youth are steadily reminded that relying on ‘merit’ is not as rewarding as investing one’s energies and talents in currying favor with the elites. The term meritocracy in this country has been relegated to the realm of impossibility. Link here.

Charles Duhigg, in his self-help block-buster The Power of Habit, recommends that, to rid oneself of a bad habit, one needs to break free from the "triggers" or “reinforcers” of that habit.

And, basing my point on Duhigg’s proposed strategy, I emphasized:

Pakistan needs to immediately embark on purging all such “reinforcers” of malfeasance among politicians and civil servants.

We must act before it is too late. Time and tide wait for none!

Blog post Feudal Mindset endorsed by Professor Basu of Cornell

My post on feudal mentality retweeted by Prof. Kaushik Basu, currently Professor of Economics and International Studies at Cornell University and a former Chief Economist of the World Bank.

Imtiaz Bhatti on the tragedy of a feudal mindset. https://t.co/4z5B3DQztK— Kaushik Basu (@kaushikcbasu) May 20, 2019

Harassment Bribes

Source: Traveldudes

In a newspaper column in 2018, I wrote:

If the government is serious in dealing the culture of corruption a devastating blow, it should decriminalize the paying of ‘harassment bribes’, while substantially enhancing the punishment for demanding or receiving bribes. Link here.

I based my argument on the work of Prof. Kaushik Basu of Cornell University. Dr. Basu uses the term "harassment bribe" for the bribes that members of public must pay to avoid facing a grave loss.

Many countries' penal codes make both the taking and giving of bribe equally illegal and culpable. But, no course of action remains other than bribing the concerned official for a student with hard timelines needing her diploma certificate or a house owner urgently requiring a title certificate of her property.

Decriminalizing bribe-giving in such situations will reduce the incidence of bribe-taking, for the sufferer will no longer be discouraged from reporting the tormentor.