Hoping for a corruption-free Bangladesh after the pandemic 

Shaiful Hossain
Published : 3 June 2020, 01:51 AM
Updated : 3 June 2020, 01:51 AM

Corruption has been very much familiar and popular (?) word in the context of Bangladesh. Ethically and morally corruption can never be supported but we have got used to the term as we have been severely affected by this heinous cancer in every limb of our socio-economic body. All walks of society have been cobwebbed by this deadly disease upon our acceptance – willingly or unwillingly.

Literally the very term 'corruption' is not a new addition to the economic history of the world. It has a long glorious (!) tradition in the evolution of human civilisation. But nowadays it has got a new shape and flavour. The 'Arthashastra', an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy authored by Chanakya is more than 2,000 years old. Chanakya, also known as Kautilya or Vishnugupta, was an adviser and a prime minister to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta, and architect of Chandragupta's rise to power. He very neatly elaborated around 40 ways and means of misappropriating government funds and wrote that the people related closely to the affairs of government become rich out of two ways: either they deceive the government or they torture the mass. He was very much careful and well aware of the consequences of corruption in the economy but still, he thought corruption in the government is inevitable and indispensable. Chanakya elaborated clearly: "Just as it is impossible not to taste honey or poison that one may find at the tip of one's tongue, so it is impossible for one dealing with government funds not to taste, at least a little bit of the king's wealth. Just as it is impossible to know when a fish moving in water is drinking it, so it is impossible to find out where government servants in charge of undertaking misappropriate money.'

Corruption was in all of South Asia during old and ancient times. Bengal was not an exception to this. Poet Mukundaram composed a poem in the 16th century about the involvement of government servants in multiple corruption incidents. He identified the government servants as the most disgraceful people who were considering the uncultivated lands as cultivated ones and they were not working rightfully and lawfully even after getting 'dhuti' (cloths for Hindu males) as bribes. There was and is corruption in every society irrespective of ages. But economists have neglected the negative correlation between corruption and economic growth and development in their theories for long. Why did they avoid that correlation was because of mainly two reasons – one being historical and the other being theoretical. Historical perspective doesn't find any enmity between corruption and political-economical development. In Europe and America, capitalism became in full bloom out of multiple forms of corruption in different sections of society. Involvement in corruption in American society in the 19th century is well known to the other parts of the world. The people, who acquired untold riches collecting primary capital through robbing, became acquainted as Robber Barons in America. "The giant robbers establish banks" – is a Chinese saying.

Social scientists and economists also used to believe that corruption had helped economic development. Corruption is not but a human tendency. It doesn't retard economic development if and only if it can be retained at a tolerable level. It couldn't hinder the growth of the developed countries but it has almost stopped our wheel of development whenever it crossed all the tolerable limits. We don't have a single sector which is free from corruption. We have laws and rules to fight corruption but they are not working properly. It has proved the beautiful saying of famous historian Will Durant that "Law is a spider's web that catches the little flies and lets the big bugs escape". The big bugs are getting bigger at the sweet shelter of the laws and the small flies are getting caught. Wealth is getting concentrated in some special hands and the rest of the people are becoming paupers and poorer.

I was talking to an old lady while sipping tea in a tiny stall during a trip to Kolkata, the capital of India's West Bengal state, a few decades ago. The house next to the teashop seemed to be very old as its colour faded. Upon learning that the said lady owned the house, I, by the way, asked her why she had kept the house that way. I was surprised to know that the house had been only five years old and she had not coloured it to avoid paying taxes. She would have been in trouble if taxmen had come and asked for the source of the money she had got. In Bangladesh, the picture is a bit different – people will barely look into your source of income If you show an earning of Tk 50,000 but spend Tk 500,000. Neighbours and relatives would appreciate and envy you at the same time for your display of lavishness. Corruption has affected us like a social plague.

Economists and social scientists have categorised corruption into two types -namely predictable corruption and unpredictable corruption. Predictable corruption is that sort of corruption where bribery would ensure the work to be done and unpredictable corruption will act just opposite. For example, you will give money for a job but it will not be completed. Predictable corruption may help an economy grow (!) but unpredictable corruption destroys the accountability and hinders economic growth, and thereby development. Lack of accountability breaks the social chains and encourages the flow of black money, making an economy vulnerable. Politics becomes polluted and democratic norms are broken. A bad economy can't present good politics and again bad politics can't help build a strong socio-economic foundation.

Economists didn't agree to identify corruption as an economic problem and neglected the issue for a long time before Nobel Laureate economist Gunnar Myrdal published his great book 'Asian Drama' in 1968 where he strongly expressed his opinion against corruption for the sake of economic development. Even until the 1990s, the economists didn't give due importance to Myrdal's opinion. The issue began drawing much attention later. Over the years it has been proven that corruption breaks the macroeconomic stability of a country, increases the government's expenses, budget deficit and inflation, pollutes the environment and enhances the economic disparity in the society. The acute burden of corruption falls upon the shoulders of the poor. Moreover, corruption hinders the entire process of development discouraging the flow of foreign investment, especially in countries like Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has a sustaining GDP growth rate for the last decade and has been recognised as a development surprise in the world. We could have been in a far better position if prevailing corruption and a distorted socio-economic situation, examples of which we can see even during the COVID-19 pandemic, had not been predominant.

Like many others, I hope as I always do that we find a different Bangladesh after the pandemic is over.