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Corruption, human rights, and the usual
suspects
By Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - Transparency International
released its annual index of global corruption last
week. Compared with 2002, standings didn't change
dramatically for Asia. The region's clean governments
still feature prominently at the top of chart while the
usual suspects fill the bottom of the list.
For
No 5 Singapore, No 8 Hong Kong and No 21 Japan, it's
comforting to see that economic recession hasn't led to
rampant moral bankruptcy.
On the other hand,
it's distressing to see four of the seven ranked
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members
near the bottom of the pile again. Brunei, Cambodia and
Laos remain unranked because of insufficient data,
though it's hard to believe they'd lift the group's
standing. Developing nations, in Asia and elsewhere,
seem stuck in a rut that accepts corruption as
inevitable and inalterable, like the weather. A reign of
terror could stop it, Indonesian President Megawati
Sukarnoputri jokingly, and wrongly, suggests.
Caveat corruptor
Berlin-based
Transparency International (TI) is celebrating its 10th
anniversary as the world's corruption watchdog. Founder
Peter Eigen first tried to address the problem of
business and political leaders on the take as a World
Bank official in developing Africa and Latin America.
The issue initially proved too hot for World Bank
lawyers, who feared getting sued for defamation. So
Eigen founded his own non-governmental organization to
take up the cause in May 1993. Major funding from the
Ford Foundation helped move TI from Eigen's kitchen in
Berlin to the world stage, and the group published its
first Corruption Perceptions Index in 1995.
As
the name suggests, TI's rankings are based on
measurements of perceptions, not actual instances of
corruption. After all, actual corruption can be
difficult to measure; those engaged in bribery,
kickbacks and the like rarely present audited records of
their transactions. Tracking convictions or cases
brought can be misleading, revealing more about the
quality of law enforcement and/or investigative
reporters than the prevalence of corruption. "The only
method of compiling comparative data is therefore to
build on the experience and perceptions of those who are
most directly confronted with the realities of
corruption," TI states.
The organization also
finds that perceptions from outside a country (surveys
of foreign investors, for example) generally correlate
to a high degree with those from inside. Those findings
give TI greater confidence that the perceptions the
index compiles reflect realities.
'High
level' detection
In this year's survey, 95 out
of 133 countries (71 percent) scored less than 5 on TI's
0-10 scale. Fifty countries (38 percent) score below 3,
indicating a "high level of corruption" by TI's
standard. That "high level" group includes half of all
developing countries. Asia's representatives are: India
(2.8); Pakistan (2.5); the Philippines (2.5); Vietnam
(2.4); Indonesia (1.9); Myanmar (1.6); and Bangladesh
(1.3), last in the rankings just as it was in 2002.
To combat corruption, Transparency International
recommends national anti-corruption programs combined
with support from developed countries, global
institutions and even the private sector. For example,
TI recommends that international oil companies publish
the amounts they pay to governments and state oil
companies so that citizens can monitor how much of that
money leaks away. TI also urges enforcement of the
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development's
Anti-Bribery Convention that took effect in 1999 but has
yet to result in any prosecutions of rich-country
companies for baksheesh to foreign officials.
For Indonesia's Megawati, the solution is far
more complicated. After a newspaper suggested that
Indonesia needs a strong president to end its rampant
corruption, Megawati responded by pointing at China. She
told reporters, "If I meet a corruptor and, immediately,
bang, I shoot him, I am very sure that all of you will
write stories tomorrow about how the Indonesian
president violated human rights."
TI's reports
point out that corruption is in fact a violation of
human rights. Funds misappropriated to politicians'
offshore bank accounts can't be used for economic
development, health care or education. Corruption helps
perpetuate the cycle of poverty and stifles human
development.
Growth
industry
Corruption in Indonesia, endemic under
the Suharto regime, has grown worse under Megawati. Weak
leadership is only one factor, and perhaps not a major
one, since her husband Taufik Kiemas is widely rumored
to have his finger in the public-works pie, a role that
brought Suharto's spouse the nickname of Madame Tien
"Percent". Institutional changes have played a key role.
Decentralization and the end of authoritarianism have
multiplied opportunities for corruption. In a long
period of economic stagnation and recession, corruption
is one growth industry.
Megawati is correct that
lack of punishment encourages corruption. Of course,
she's wrong to pretend that the only choices are
shooting thieves or ignoring them. Indonesian tycoons
who looted the state's emergency banking funds (an
estimated US$100 million would end up in squeaky-clean
Singapore; authorities there would surely be shocked -
shocked - to learn of a possible link) avoid jail by
agreeing to pay back pennies on the dollar. House
Speaker Akbar Tanjung got a mild sentence for embezzling
$3 million from the government. He'll remain free
pending appeal long enough to run for president next
year in a nation where a political career is considered
a path to wealth rather than public service.
Unprofessional prosecutors and judges who regularly put
verdicts out for bid complete the system that puts
Indonesia near the bottom the corruption list. Human
rights and the media have nothing to do with it.
In fact, the TI index shows that limiting
freedom doesn't necessarily strangle corruption.
Finland, No 1 on the chart, may have some self-assertion
and self-esteem issues along with unnatural fondness for
mobile phones, but those aren't gross human-rights
violations. In the rest of the top 10, primarily
Northern European and Antipodean nations, only Singapore
might raise alarm bells with Amnesty International.
Shooting corrupt business people and politicians
may work, but China ranks at No 66 with a rating of 3.4,
tied with Panama, Syria and Sri Lanka. Megawati owes it
to Indonesia to aim higher than that.
(Copyright
2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved.
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