No Nonsense
Anti-corruption and ethical society
WHILE analysing corruptions and immoralities of our politicians, I invoked God in two of my recent articles. In the August 20, 2007 piece, "Socially isolating the corrupt" I wrote:
"Why do our politicians and public officials engage in immoral and illicit pursuits, given that they go to the mosque, perform their prayers, and observe all other religious rituals? Truly, God- fearing religious people would define them as hypocrites -- not as religious people. Would God then listen to a hypocrite's prayer for party unity, release from prison, or for working together to lead the country to ruin again?"
In the October 19, 2007 piece "Loyalty to leader versus country," I wrote:
"Corrupt politicians, public servants, and businessmen are afraid of the ACC. My friends and I are also afraid. We are afraid that, if the old politicians make the ACC dysfunctional, they'll rule the country in the old ways. We're afraid of the politicians who raise their hands, praying to God for their leaders' release from prison. We're afraid that God, in a moment of mercy, will listen to them. And it's that fear which keeps us busy, praying to the same God for maximum incarcerations for their crimes. We have to wait to see whose prayers are answered."
Apparently, our waiting is over and it seems their prayers have been answered, and seemingly our prayers went unheeded.
The incarcerated are walking out as winners, amid noisy and boisterous revelry, displaying no remorse of their guilt and humiliation. Once out of the prison gate, they start demanding the release of their leader and others they left behind inside prison.
Hamstrung by procedural loopholes and legal gambits, ACC Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury gave the best antidote to this melancholy. He admitted that the unfaltering image of the ACC is being getting dented due to recent bail binges and stay orders on the cases filed against corruption in high places.
Chairman Mashhud's consternation is revealed in his muted optimism on September 2, when he said the cases will get on legal track after disposal of writs and stay orders, indicating that the "freed" may not be free after all.
He said that detaining someone or granting no bail in graft cases isn't a big deal for the ACC. "Stay orders and bails are indispensable parts of law."
Yes, the right to be free on bail is a fundamental right of all citizens. But ACC's successes or failures may not simply be measured by counting how many cases were prosecuted with positive outcomes; instead it should be measured in terms of the standings of the ACC relative to where it was 12 months ago.
Only the corrupt politicians and their followers will persistently attempt to belittle and deface the achievements of this CTG while covering up their mischief and failures. One such politician is BNP's Khondaker Delwar Hossain, who at every utterance made it a habit of mocking the CTG, the ACC, and the EC while shamelessly evading wholesale damage BNP did to this impoverished nation. To my judgment, this man is the bête noire -- an insufferable individual --among all politicians in recent memory.
Since the restoration of democracy in 1991, what the politicians could not accomplish in 16 years, this CTG consummated many of the unfinished jobs in less than 2 years. For example, the job of producing photo imprinted voter identity card -- a stupendous task -- unimaginable only a few months ago; is a monumental success. While many recent writers highlighted other accomplishments and failures, the one that may have by passed our attention is the obliteration of the growing design of Zia family's "dynastic rule" in Bangladesh.
One may wonder, the politicians have learned anything over the last 22 months or so? Hard to say if they did since we still hear the threats of political movements and see the specter of campus and street violence by student wings of national political parties. If anything at all, they may have learned that unbridled corruption will not go scot free.
To combat corruption, the government is considering the adoption of a 'national integrity strategy' (NIS) -- one that will create an ethical society to back up ACC's corruption drives (The Daily Star September 9). The government hopes to achieve such a society through 'rebuilding integrity' in every segment of the society including public, private, and political sectors.
It's reported that the NIS will be run under policy guidance of a National Integrity Advisory Committee (NIAC) to be led by the prime minister. Other members will include the Speaker, cabinet ministers, an elected representative from local government, attorney general, ACC and PSC chairmen, chief election commissioner, Ombudsman, Comptroller and Auditor General, and representatives from NGO, business sector, media, civil society and political parties and families.
While wishing well for the NIAC, I view it as the creation of a $150 million Asian Development Bank funded gargantuan and complex bureaucracy.
NIS approach to combat corruption is a kind of holistic approach -- one that is identified with the principles of holism in a system of therapeutics (holistic psychology) considered outside scientific approach. The holistic approach may reform some people having some semblance of feelings of shame and guilt for their actions.
In his widely acclaimed Journal article, "American national conversion about shame -- everything but" (Journal of Social Research, winter 2003), Dov Cohen highlighted shame, guilt, embarrassment, and humiliation as The Four Horsemen of Abasement.
To comprehend shamefully, one needs to highlight two other attributes: Honour and self-esteem. Obviously, honour and shame are opposites. Honour implies status and reputation of a person in the eyes of his or her peers, and is accorded by a reputation for good moral character.
Shame and self-esteem are completely different traits, because the "self is both, the one that's being esteemed and the one doing the esteeming." Hypothetically, no one else needs to be involved in one's furthering of self-esteem.
The upshot of these distinctions is to establish the notion that when we say: "Politicians of Bangladesh are shameless," we're referring to their lack of sense of guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, honour and self-esteem.
Both the misanthropists and the pragmatists are wondering if the NIS approach would succeed in reforming these politicians.
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