"When their lordship asked Bacon How many bribes he had taken He had at least the grace
To get very red in the face"
-Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1958)
English Writer
Mahbubar Rahman
Corruption is a term which is widely spoken about, these days, but rarely understood by its cancerous impact in the society in the real sense of the term. It is such a deadly social disease that gnaws every social fabrics that shape a healthy society worth living. Corruption is rooted in human psyche from the dawn of human civilization in different names and titles and will continue to spread through the veins & arteries of human society till dooms day. Its presence in human society is ubiquitous and never ending. That apparently sounds very disappointing, indeed, for that good human being who care and constantly raise their voices against corruption in the given society toward finding a remedy to save the society from sinking into morass of all social evils and stagnation.
Like multi headed hydra, corruption appears in the society in different facades some which is clearly visible while others remains invisible in naked human eyes. Generally people tend to identify corruption only in monetary or financial term. Beyond the fold of money, corruption equally exists in the fold of moral turpitude and aberration of ethical values of life.
An individual apparently with a clean chit being an honest person in financial term may not be considered as honest person whose personal resume depicts such a dismal picture filled with episodes of moral turpitude and aberration from ethical values in his chequered personal, professional and political life.
As adage has it 'all that glitters is not gold, similarly an individual with flaming heavenly glows in appearance garbed in spotless sartorial may not be classified as a man without corruption who squanders government's coffers in the name of business or servicing governments office for gainful purpose.
Corruption apparently looking in homogeneous facade varies in degrees from countries to countries, societies to societies. Hands of corruption are long stretching in the developing countries in comparison with that of developed countries. In the developing countries of the world, corruption takes place mostly under the umbrella of government bodies and agencies. A government in the developing countries under a democratic dispensation with adequate accountability has to always remain in its toe to arrest corruption by good governance and unflinching commitments.
Founded in 1993, a Berlin based whistleblower against corruption and miss-governance, Transparency International (TI) with a well knitted global network watches and prepares global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) every year after following certain standard methodology. TI defines corruption 'as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain which eventually hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority'.
Following establishment of Transparency International (TI) in 1993 in Berlin, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), a civil society organization manned by scholarly people from civil society; dedicated to fighting against corruption, was established in 1996 in Dhaka as the Bangladeshi branch of TI. Having confronted with trials and tribulations over the years since their birth and having passed through perils of hostility emerging from the segment of corrupt people in Bangladesh, TIB has so far stood the test of time and proved equal to the task.
As far as TIB's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is concerned, Bangladesh still ranks in the list of most corrupt countries of the world, of course, with visible improvement in ranking from the bottom over the preceding years. Bangladesh has had the horrendous experience of falling in the rank of number one most corrupt country in the world a decade ago for 5 consecutive terms when a government with a parallel administration in the name of a metaphorical 'Windy Castle' of corruption was in place.
Bangladesh has had the creeping experience of having a Prime Minister and Finance Minister who had whitened their black money after paying necessary taxes in panel rates 'without grace to get very red in the face' as the English writer under reference Edmund Clerihew Bentley wrote long time ago on corruption. Bangladesh has had equally a chilling experience of hearing from the mouth of an immediate past octogenarian and scholarly Finance Minister that a huge amount Tk. 40000 crore squandered by a group of unscrupulous businessmen from the banking sector is a peanut amount, thereby giving a tacit legitimacy to corruption.
It is interesting to note, at this point, that when TIB talks loud about corruption in the government sector, then the seating government and its functioning agencies reject TIB report outright without delving into the matter and with the plea that the 'report lacks credible evidence' while the rival political parties grin on government's awkward position and come up, in jubilation, with lilting laughter. This comical exercise continues with equally giving rise to ear-deafening laughter and seismic jolt in public mind. In order to jibbing the wild horse of corruption, the government of Bangladesh under prime minister Sheikh Hasina constituted Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) ... an independent constitutional body, if not to arrest or curve corruption in entirety, but to bring down corruption to a tolerable level.
Although a former Chairman of ACC, presumably out of frustration, once dubbed ACC as a tiger without tooth and claws, the present Chief of ACC has gained enough courage and braved to bring the stalwarts of corruption belonging to even ruling political party under the hard gaze of scrutiny in their endeavour of waging war against corruption.
People count on seeing the outcome of efforts of ACC and the government itself as well how effectively they net the big fishes of corruption who stay comfortably within beyond the reach of ACC's sharp claws. People do not wish to see any more ACC's and government's fight against corruption as Metaphorical Quixotian fight of legendary Don Quixote... the hero of literary fable who had fought with the shadows of windmills in full fighting gear, ultimately ending in total fiasco. A tolerably corruption free society is a pre-condition for democracy. Democracy cannot function in a country where corruption plays rampant with politicians wafting in cherubic celebration in squandering public money for self-aggrandizement covertly or overtly 'all in the name of serving the cause of the people (III)'.
Before I conclude, I wish to fall back upon the words of a American writer and journalist Theodore H. white (1915-1986) who once wrote: "The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy"
