New “rules of the game”

Apr 27, 2015 Editorial

Corruption, most would concede, is not a new problem in our body politic. Some would say that the very act of creating offices and bestowing power on their holders unleashes corruption. The 19th British historian Lord Acton famously observed: “All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Generally, corruption is regarded as a consequence of political and economic, socio-ethnic, and even moral reasons: politicians need votes; businessmen need favours; officeholders favour “their own” and all these are judged to be “bad” reasons for making decisions that involve the patrimony of the state. After all, the latter is supposed to be held in trust for all the citizenry and to be distributed fairly.
Now all the foregoing might very well be true as far as the genesis of the phenomenon of corruption is concerned, in our country. But as the cancer has metastasised and overtaken almost every institution in the country – in and outside the state – the quantitative has altered the qualitative nature of the disease.
Corruption itself has become the overriding factor that defines both the state politics and economy, and even social relations in our society.
With the departure of the British, especially after 1968, we have gradually but inexorably created a new form of the state and political system – in which their foundations are firmly based on unmitigated, absolute corruption.
Corruption has expropriated the political system, altered the state apparatus to itself, and promulgated new “rules of the game.”
As a consequence, political authoritarianism and social demagogy of those in power, have become unavoidable products of the pervasive corruption in the state system. It is important to note that it does not matter what the nominal form of the state might be: what we will now have is a liberal-corruption, socialist-corruption or conservative-corruption state etc.
In this new world where corruption has become the norm, democracy and its undergirding principle of the “rule of law” inevitably become subversive elements which are just as inevitably countered by authoritarianism. The democratic system of checks and balances, legislative and judicial autonomy, an unfettered and free press etc. are concrete mechanisms that facilitate an effective struggle against corruption. Consequently, the only path of survival for such corrupt systems (of whatever variety) is to attack and eliminate democratic principles from state and societal processes.
Take the problem of bribery and graft that is so prevalent in our country. There is a great outcry as to why the constitution, laws and regulations are not applied with the same vigour to all transgressors.
The answer is simple: unless you have been defined as an enemy of those in power (or their friends) it means that anyone prosecuted energetically has simply not greased the appropriate palms. The formal rule of law is a sword to destroy the critics and a shield to protect the power elite.
However, there is a more insidious aspect to the widespread acceptance of bribery and graft by those in power. When a citizen proffers the bribe and the official accepts it, they both fulfil their immediate wants.
But most importantly from the standpoint of maintaining the corrupt regime in place, the transaction means that the citizen tacitly accepts the status quo. He boasts of having “lines” and the corrupt administration knows that he is less likely to storm the Presidential Compound. Corruption becomes a substitute for violence.
Then there is the role of the press. The corrupt politicians become incensed when incidents of corruption are charged to the political regime by the press. They would rather that corruption goes unreported, or at worse, is blamed on the local lackeys.
The true extent and nature of the corruption – which is the entire political system – must be hidden from view. It is imperative that the veil of secrecy be lifted over all transactions: from government and civil society.

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