This is how I would define corruption.
What is a scandal to some , is shrugged off like unwanted dandruff by others. Bring politicians into the equation and you have the same set of facts which can be twisted as truths, lies and fake news at will.
And for those who have been taught to believe in values , principles and ethics – it suddenly appears that the world we live in is not a very nice place after all.
Well before us , in fact at the beginning of times, in the Book of Genesis, God is reported to have had the same feeling . He had created a perfect world and perfect creatures, but even God could not preserve their goodness.
6.5 Genesis reports: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”
At 6.11- 12 Genesis, we read:
- Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.
- God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
We could be reading our morning papers !
Progress throughout the whole world is gnawed by the greed of a few at the expense of the masses.
It is now clear that corruption is not a simple matter of exchanging favours for money – it hits mankind to its core and bares all our weaknesses . The link of modern day corruption with poverty, human trafficking , money laundering, arms trafficking , terrorism , the mafia and the underworld is beyond explaining – and yet, like the legendary nine headed hydra, each time a head is chopped , two new ones appear.
Stripped to its simplest form, corruption is a web of lies, craftily made to look like a truth.
It presupposes a seemingly honest , above board transaction carried out in broad daylight – very often with popular support and for the public good. It hides pre-meditated motives of gain involving the corrupting party which makes the payment and the corrupt party which enables the distortion of the transaction into one with private self-interested motives. These two parties are the only critical components to a successful act of corruption.
Why then is it so difficult to root out corruption ?
When so many laws have been devised at domestic and international levels, when specialized agencies have been set up to detect, investigate and prosecute acts of corruption, when countries have set up networks to exchange information to prevent safe havens for parking of funds and when each and every government in the world is unanimous in putting the fight against corruption at the top of its political agenda ?
This rhetorical question can have a disarmingly simple solution – that of tracing the trajectory of the funds.
And this is where the lie stares us in the face . Instead of going straight for the money, a lot of energy is spent in creating and serializing scandals. In the popular quest for answers, we allow ourselves to be sent from pillar to post with explanations that would make a 5 year old giggle.
In Mauritius, we are not short of laws – on our statute books, we have enough clout to root out this scourge with ease. In practice, our enforcement initiatives seem to be open to question. When one considers that the moment there is a whiff of an act of corruption in the air, the clock starts immediately ticking for the wrongdoers to be brought to justice – we cannot understand why so many investigations apparently pile up , unresolved and incomplete.
It is also regrettable that so much attention is paid to the media coverage of files and computers being seized, people lining up for questioning by the investigators and juicy details of the who’s who of an alleged act of corruption – whilst little, if no interest is paid to unveiling facts, unshrouding opaque dealings and getting down to a serious analysis of reliable data.
This is a reflection of what corruptors and the ones they corrupt, most intimately wish – we play right into their game. And can we claim that any of the vehement denials , counter- allegations and well articulated , but lame explanations (if not apologies for excuses) are capable of convincing us ? In the meantime, the happy gang of perpetrators walk around scot free and unbothered.
When all is said and done, let us admit that if God was not able to get it right, it will be nigh impossible for our mortal lot to pretend to know better !!