Faith and Logic: How we're all 'corrupt'

Today as the menace of corruption has eaten us hollow, we tend to forget this relationship. We also tend to ignore that corruption has become a way of life not only in the elite quarters but in the shops and offices of the middle- and lower-middle classes.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Opinion
Source & Credit: The News International
By Talat Farooq | July 1, 2010

The interaction between human nature and power and the consequences that ensue from such an interaction have been the focus of study for centuries. William Pitt alluded to this fact of life back in the 18th century as he declared in the House of Lords: "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords, that where laws end tyranny begins." One may surmise, then, that the corrupted minds of the powerful that feast on a lack of accountability, logically serve as a gateway to institutionalised corruption, as indeed is the case in Pakistan.


But how does this delegation of tyrannical power come about in a society? A powerful argument is that the delegation of unchecked power to an individual or a group occurs when the civil society, especially the intelligentsia, surrenders its own natural rights, and the rights of the voiceless millions dependent on it, either because it has corrupt elements within its own ranks or because it does not wish to abandon its comfort zone related to physical survival. So the roots of tyranny leading to corrupt practices are not in the unlimited power of the elite but, more significantly, in the social acceptance of their behaviour.

Back in the 80s the Ziaul Haq regime ensured that all students at various levels of their academic career should learn Hadiths by heart. There was never any in-depth discussion on any of the Hadiths in the Islamiyat class, and the only reason we rote-learned them was to get decent grades. The famous ones included the one about bribery. "Al raashi wal murtashi fin nar." (The taker and giver of bribe are doomed to Hell.) Later, I helped my children rote-learn the same for their exams. Now, more than three decades down the line, with the media going all vocal, rather bravely I should say, on the misdeeds of the powerful, I am forced to analyse the relationship between the "givers" and the "takers" as well as the" watchers," especially the ones who "watch" by looking the other way, and I am not surprised to find a symbiotic bonding.

Today as the menace of corruption has eaten us hollow, we tend to forget this relationship. We also tend to ignore that corruption has become a way of life not only in the elite quarters but in the shops and offices of the middle- and lower-middle classes. The lists of the corrupt on the net and on the TV screens pertain to the rich and the famous. Unfortunately, they are only one piece of the complex whole.

Understandably, after six decades of repressed anger, it gives us a sense of empowerment to be able to condemn the corrupt elite. However, at the same time, we tend to justify bribe-taking by middleclass and lower-middleclass workers as something necessary for survival in an unfair society, and during "such hard times." This rationale has spawned a culture of socially acceptable corruption at the lower levels. Every time one deals with the ordinary non-elite citizens of Pakistan--from the butcher and the grocer to the building contractor and the labourer, and from the hairdresser and the tailor to the clerk at the counter--one keeps getting this distinct feeling all the time of getting fleeced.

The acceptance of such a culture at the bottom makes it easier for the corrupt at the top to get away with murder. The relationship between the two is undeniable and our acceptance of one at the lower level makes us accomplices of the ones at the top. The consistent corrupt practices of the Pakistanis merit the suffix "ism" by now. One can now safely declare "fraudia-ism" as a socio-political ideology of Pakistan pervasive enough to impact its moral values.

We like to talk about the corrupt "other," inwardly gloating over our own piety or the good luck of our not having been caught. The television or print media's exposures and investigative reports are entertainment for an otherwise entertainment starved nation. For most of us it is a source of catharsis, but not inspiration to rise to the occasion. Those of us who possess the intellectual and material resources to organise sustained opposition to such an ideology do not have the courage or the foresight to initiate a cohesive social movement. We are too caught up in our own lives and survival to look at the big picture, especially when it is so scary.

Surfing the net I came across a website that has listed--and, by the looks of it, will continue to add--the names of the corrupt in the land of the otherwise very pure people: from the politicians to the religious leaders to the generals. The list promises to be even more exhaustive with time, and as corruption flourishes unabated. I am "optimistic" of the growth of the list because Transparency International's annual Global Corruption Perceptions Index goes to show that the organisation's efforts at exposing the corrupt does nothing to stop the corrupt from getting richer and even more corrupt, at least in Pakistan. The reason is simple: we have accepted this as a fact of life and have learned to coexist. That in itself is a form of corruption.

So forgive me, dear reader, but I think my name and yours should be included in the list available at http://www.wikimir.com/fraudia-list


The writer is a PhD student at Leicester, UK. Email: talatfarooq11@gmail.com


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