By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
People in general are too greedy and are eager to misuse power to make wealth illegally and in doing so, they don’t mind committing crimes as the system is expected to shield them.
For American and European leaders democracy primarily means elections that are mandatory to claim legitimacy to rule a nation in favor of capitalists and they refuse to link democracy with well being of common people. But is that enough for a true democracy? Is an election quite enough to conduct the nation’s endeavors honesty? Against this background, the great thinkers spread ideas of democracy and freedom with a view to establishing a global welfare society. But when applied to life by the greedy politicians and bureaucrats, the great ideas gave rise to corruption obstructing to equalization attempts by a sincere state. The interconnection between democracy and corruption is well known and it has historical roots when a few persons tried, quite successfully, to control and swindle the national economy by raising the slogan of democracy, while the strong nations greedy of overseas wealth invaded countries on fictitious pretexts, including lack of democracy. All possible pretexts for exploitation and invasion continue even to this day when more people crave for democracy, seeking, at the same time, more wealth through any means.
The concept “Democracy without Corruption” is a positive idea concept
that, if implemented with commitment and sincerity by the regime agencies, would in fact would effect political as well as societal changes globally by creating the environment for genuine democracy that would help positive governance. This in turn makes politics and nation corruption free in order to help ordinary common people enjoy life as free citizens. Thus far, everything in the world is meant only for the corrupt rich and corporate lords who are shielded by corrupt regimes.
Corruption is common phenomenon all over the world, both in developed and underdeveloped worlds. In countries like India, no politics or poll is possible without engineering corrupt practices, endangering democracy and people on a large scale. Consequently, common people, who form the majority of voters in India like any other country, suffer. Irrespective of religion, caste and creed, people are scared of corrupt practices of politicians who take it their prerogative to loot nation’s resources with assistance from equally corrupt bureaucrats and media lords.
As a result, today the notion of democracy is in-twined with corruption and one is not generally possible without the other. Development of democracy, therefore, assumes provision for rampant corruption in the country. However, corruption is possible even without any democracy in the system.
Political corruption–the misuse by government officials of their governmental powers for illegitimate, usually secret, private gain–makes societal institutions totally corrupt. Political parties in West as well as East, with no exceptions, thrive in corrupt politics and democracy provides convenient platforms for making as much wealth as it would be possible in a given situation. Corruption is all-pervasive passes through each and every branch of life and society.
Anti-corruption agencies exist in addition to the corrupt bureaucracy and politicians network and they make very little or no difference to the corrupt world. In the absence of free or genuine media concerns, the corruption has emerged as an independent institution trying to get their share in the overall booty, though occasionally flashing out scams. Loyal media also play a hide-and -seek role in corruption investigation efforts.
Photo Courtesy: Yin-Yang-India.com
There is false notion equating democracy with elections, however fake those maybe. World’s top terrocracies hold polls in order only to justify their collective crimes against humanity. USA not only regularly holds polls in indoors, but also imposes polls in now destabilized Muslim nations, like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, for securing legitimacy for the illegal invasions on false pretexts, genocides and destructions in these nations. Israel and India do the same to control Palestine and Kashmir, respectively. This indeed is the falsification of the concept democracy.
Corruption is a very serious social and societal evil and it cuts into mass welfare and equality of chances, particularly for the have-nots. Developed countries have fewer problems thanks to huge resources available. In developing nations having fewer resources the practice of rampant corruption harmed the common people. Corruption generates economic distortions in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful. Officials may increase the technical complexity of public sector projects to conceal or pave way for such dealings, thus further distorting investment. Corruption also lowers compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations, reduces the quality of government services and infrastructure, and increases budgetary pressures on government.
Corruption undermines economic development by generating considerable distortions and inefficiency. Economists argue that one of the factors behind the differing economic development in Africa and Asia is that corruption has primarily taken the form of rent extraction with the resulting financial capital moved overseas as well as invested at home.
Democracy without Corruption can work for the benefit of the nation and society only if the concept is introduced in the constitutions and implemented with true spirits. But the problem is politicians are increasingly greedy and do not want equality anywhere in the world. They sue the very ordinary masses who are being exploited by one and all to support their own causes for illegal wealth making that harm the people.
Individuals enter politics mainly to amaze, sustain and further enhance wealth. In the realm of corruption, East Asia is not different from West Asia, or South Asia from Central Asia, for instance. So, not every leader is honest and but all of them want to use politics and power to mint money for themselves and families because they believe they have the right to take away as maximum as possible nation’s resources as “legitimate” service charges.
Those rich and corporates who spend huge money in the polls for politicians are only eager to get back the profits in multiple times from the rulers and the ruling party encourage as well as engaged in crimes to stay in power.
Elections are important but they are not everything that a democracy requires. When polls are conducted by illegal and immoral means like money and muscle by the powerful parties and mafias, as of now prevalent that indeed makes a mockery of democracy. Indian democracy is a clear case in point to make the issue of corrupt democracy clearer. Although corruption had existed when India got freedom from a corrupt Britain, Indian rulers have promoted corruption as a practical method to let the leaders grow rich and pampered some individual Indians to become billionaires quickly by misusing Indian regime nexus.
Like bribery, dowry system prevailing in India communities have exuberated the corruption system as well.
Coalition governments also harmed the nation by promoting rampant corruption Though every ruling party or coalition promoted corruption in Indian democracy, it was the Congress party that institutionalized corruption as a national shame. The government installed by Congress under Manmohan Singh, economist and former governor of reserve bank India and pro-IMF/WB has fixed final axe on the notion of politics without corruption as he and Sonia Gandhi over saw India’s most corrupt government of India. Every minister was given freedom to make more wealth as they want and the PM, himself was eager to stay in power without getting elected by the people of India, and dramatically pretended he knew nothing about what was happening under his very innocent looking nose.
The obvious result was large scale corruption cases 2G Spectrum and coal mining scams which came to light that eventually brought down the Congress government and brought up the Hindutva communal party to power, for the first time in history as the legitimate rulers with independent majority of its own.
Government, Media and Judiciary nexus complicated things
The nexus among government, media and judiciary makes things permanently complicated. As politicians, bureaucrats, police and judges perform so meanness and money-minded, ably shielded by the loyal media run by wealthy magnets whose only concern seems to enlarge their establishments with the support of these “national” personalities, corruption is the net result. Blood relations and strong mafias always decide many issues in government appointments and training. Sons and daughters are selectively chosen for positions and favors in all so-called democracies.
Indian democracy can at best be funny because it allows corrupt politicians and bureaucrats to stay on in power by using judiciary. Central government competes with the states in promoting corruption. In states like Karnataka nothing gets done at any level of administration by paying the usual charges, unless the palm is greased. That is the exact position in Indian democracy wherever one goes. Corruption gets institutionalized when politicians, parties and bureaucrats amaze wealth earned for their “nationalistic and patriotic” services to nation and people.
India is known for big money, both black and white and grey. Big Indians have huge money deposited abroad and the Indian regime, both Congress and BJP, refused to b bring the money back home and end money laundering.
Most states like Kerala, the so-called god’s own country where the land, sand, even water are in the hands of the big thieves with links with government and politics, systematically promote mafias in every field to generate more billions and corpora lords. Kerala is one of most corrupt states of India, where mafias in liquor and estates thrive by paying some money to the politicians as routine bribes. These strong, wealthy mafias decide the policies of the government, dictate terms to the ministers.
One cannot name one big politician who is not corrupt tin India and they all willfully misuse common people to advance their interests. Jayalalithaa, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu in India, described by one of the most corrupt Chief ministers the state ever has had, outscoring her arch rival and present CM, Karunanidhi’s record in the field, has allegedly managed to evade legal punishment because the “understanding” between her and the Judges, bonded through brokers. She could use her huge money made from politics to get the best lawyers and influence the judges. She was in jail as part of punishment for her misdeeds and she used her AIADMK party to make innocent Tamils to commit suicide to force the Supreme Court to release her on conditional bail. Not only she was safe, but she also became the chief minister again. In fact a bold Jayalalithaa would have staked her claim, if there were an award for the best corrupt chief minister of India. Her sophisticated open corruption had made Karunanidhi look just an ordinary thief, who as the former chief minister had institutionalized corruption in the state by fixing prices for each and every job (from lowest to highest in every field, including education, law and order and judiciary), admissions to specialized and other courses as well as “services” rendered by the paid employees. The people have no reasons to forgive Karunanidhi for making even the police department corrupt by misusing them after appointing them by taking fixed amount for each category of the staff. But for Jayalalithaa’s mega scandals, Karunanidhi wouldn’t have come back to power again. Her scandals offered Karunanidhi olive leaf to appear to be a “decent” politician, Tamil patriot, before the voters now, he and family continued to mint money with his own people placed at the helm of affairs everywhere. His party, the DMK was also a coalition partner at the corrupt congress led UPA Central government, which is supposed to contain corruption in the country.
Years ago, Lalu Prasad was removed by court orders from chiefministership of Bihar on corruption charges, enabling his wife to come to power and politcs, but he could become a cabinet minister for Federal government controlling a huge ministry of railways which as the largest public sector undertaking transacts worth crores of rupees every day and employs maximum number of persons in the country. UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav does not know himself how much wealth he has amazed being in politics, as most of other politicians and bureaucrats in New Delhi and state capitals have no clear idea that their wealth is spread over so many areas and in various forms.
Occasional interference from the Federal/Central government at New Delhi were only farcical efforts to fool the general public, because the ruling parties at the Centre are seen dirtier than the regional parties and oldest parties like Congress party, which is also legitimately the most corrupt party in the country, have nationalized corruption and used it as a weapon only to blackmail weak chief ministers. As agents of the Central/federal government, the Governors, who as active politicians or bureaucrats help promote corruption. Horse-trading during ministry formations when there is a hung Assembly is common in India.
Parliament is not different from the Assembly in horse-trading. It then is the fault of the common people if they take the governors as decent administrators committed to country’s/state’s welfare. When governors and chief ministers are culprits for the scenario of corruption, one can image the type of Prime Minister India can proudly have from among these individuals. Can a President, drawn from this network, be expected to be Mr. Clean and efficient?
If one goes deeply in every member of State Assembly and Indian Parliament, a panoramic scene about nexus between democracy and corruption emerges and which would be threatening to any real believer in welfare of people. Suffix to take up a few random cases to elucidate the point clearly. When lawmakers become or behave like lawbreakers, there is very little that the judiciary can do, even if it desires. But Judges, who look upon the politicians and government for appointments and other favors, are not expected to rise above meanness when dealing with corruption cases and as a result some compromise formula is arrived that benefits the judges as well. There ends the fate of corruption cases in the country.
No political party is above luster and nobody enters politics if that were not to benefit them foremost. Not even those in Jammu and Kashmir where people fight for Independence. All parties in India have enormous wealth, including movable, running into thousands of crores of rupees and since it is an all-party affair, no one talks about it.
Nor the media most of them are run by the political parties and their supporters cannot be expected to raise any alarm over the proportion of wealth accumulated by the parties and politicians, unless, of course, a particular politician is to be targeted for personal vendetta. Muslim League leaders, having pretensions of uplifting the Muslims, don’t feel shy of amazing wealth both at party and individual levels. When everybody else is rich, why not we, they would argue.
Those swear by working class, like Communist Parties have taken full advantage of the democratic climate to add fortunes to their own arsenals. May be communist leaders have acquired lesser amount of wealth than the rest, but the parties have huge assets and hardly they speak about re-distribution of those resources.
If the rulers really want to create democracies without corruption and other similar crimes, they certainly can achieve that goal fairly easier because the leaders are honest themselves and oppose corruption.
World governments are susceptible to political corruption
All forms of government are susceptible to political corruption. Only forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug-trafficking, money laundering, and trafficking, it is not restricted to these organized crime activities. In some nations corruption is so common that it is expected when ordinary businesses or citizens interact with government officials.
Capitalist imperialist specialists now admit larger the democracy, greater the scope for corruption. Conversely, in small democracies the struggle for resources is stiffer because of more demanders and fewer resources. This leads to conflicts and wars in and around. It looks as if no one can evade the corridors of corruption in the country. The dilapidation of democratic institutions the world over is a matter of shame. Illegal intimidation by the authorities charged with delivery of justice is not uncommon in the world today. Not only the Bush administration intervenes in justice administration of the authorities concerned in the USA, but also the nexus between politics and jurisprudence is alarming. In developing countries the condition is horrid.
Russian President’s anti-corruption drive in Russia is badly criticized in the US and West for obvious reasons: their own company interests are also affected. Countries like USA and UK just don’t pay any attention to corruption scandals involving top politicians and bureaucrats, while the media stand by the governments in their attempts to hide the dangerous tentacles in corrupt politics of democracies. Rather, the general attitude of the state and media is one of sympathy towards corruption as unavoidable or promotable evil in democracies. US elections begin with fund raising activities by the candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties in the country.
This contributes to rampant corrupt practices after the elections when the ruling and opposition parties are supposed to satisfy those who had released sufficient funds for elections with privileges, posts and other sources of revenue. In other words, the very democratic process here begins with corruption.
India, UK and USA do boast themselves of maintaining flourishing democracy, but they seldom admit that corruption defines the programmes in their countries. No one cares for that. And, if judiciary and law and order machinery could “perform” thus badly, imagine the conditions prevailing in other departments and in “minor” democracies.
There has been quite hue and cry over the removal of the CJP in Pakistan long ago, of course for military reasons. Those who make tall claims about democracy however fail to confess that democracy is in fact a farce and a technique to fool the people and enjoy the lion’s share of fruits of development by a select band of people. The corruption as malaise has deeper ramifications and a casual look at what is happening in the so-called democracies like India would remove the illusions of virtues of democracy and democratic values to some extent. Masses are needed only to cast votes and the rest in the resource sharing is left to the politicians and bureaucrats. Even there, the “free and fair” elections are nothing but a fiction generated by the election commissions. Corruption in various forms of misuse of authority and bribery takes its “legitimate” berth during the polls.
Bribery based corruption, promoted even by the regimes themselves indoors and abroad in trade etc, cannot be the base for democracy in any country. These regimes, acting as big bosses, lack moral authority to punish the corrupt people or gangs in the countries concerned. Judges, especially the Chief Justice of any country, including CJ of a military regime could be so bold as to misuse his position for the benefit of his kith and kin, the condition in other types of countries, like so-called democracies, could be better left to imaginative power of thinkers.
Only honesty of judges can save India and other so-called democracies from corrupt elements making corruption free nation. Since parliament and state assemblies, controlled by the corrupt people, cannot be expected to pass laws to properly check corruption, only Indian judiciary can make India corruption. But for that to happen, the judges have to be away from bribery system. Judges should neither promote corruption as their principles nor become themselves victims of the bribery system.
Corruption is universal while the UN, used by big powers to promote arms deals, has assumed no role to contain the malice. The UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) came into force in December 2005 has made none to bother about evils of corruption. When socialism failed to check corruption, the issue has became very explosive, giving credit to the claims that corruption is inherent in any system developed my men because humans are essentially corrupt and not honest enough to undertake anti-corruption steps sincerely and achieve the corruption free democracy.
[Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal is Specialist on State Terrorism; Chancellor-Founder of Center for International Affairs (CIA); Independent Analyst; Chronicler of Foreign occupations & Freedom movements (Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc.). He is also former university Teacher. He can be contacted at abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com]