Editorial
Fighting corruption
After two years, where are we?
One thing we have to thank TI's Corruption Perception Index for is that it has placed combating corruption squarely at the front and centre of the nation's consciousness (though no political government ever saw fit to meaningfully address the issue while in office).
Corruption had long been a blot on the national psyche as well as a drag on the economy, and the media, civil society, and private sector had long bemoaned how the tentacles of corruption had seeped into every corner of the country, leading to chronic underdevelopment and resulting social injustice. But the truth is that it was not until the CPI rankings placed Bangladesh at the bottom of the index five years in a row that the nation sat up and took notice.
This year's ranking places us tenth from the bottom, but as has been pointed out, this is due more to other countries' scores falling than Bangladesh's score improving significantly. Nevertheless, we should not get too caught up in looking at league tables and other subjective criteria, but instead should look at hard facts.
Now that corruption is one of the major issues before us, we need to look at whether the much-vaunted anti-corruption drive that the nation has been conducting the past two years has really had much of an impact.
It must be said that the anti-corruption drive itself, focusing on the big fish, and not so much on institutional or petty corruption, and weighed down by a greater load than it could handle in terms of investigation and prosecution, has really not delivered to the extent that one would have hoped. Indeed, if those initially netted in the drive are eventually exonerated due to procedural or evidentiary blunders, it is possible that the culture of corruption will worsen.
However, we have more to be hopeful about with respect to institutional reform and the passage of laws such as RTI. These will take time to have effect, but are steps in the right direction. The main achievement has been the creation of a culture where corruption has once again been stigmatised and identified as wrong.
We need to build on our successes in this regard. Media, civil, society, and the community need to continue to make this a priority issue. It is clear that public sentiment against corruption has hardened and that tolerance for corrupt practices has diminished. What we need to do now is to keep up the pressure such that the political will to continue the fight against corruption is felt by the political parties.
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