Conversations on the Covid-19 drama have been all we ever talk about these days. It did however start off as a joke at a dinner table conversation, how we are all intertwined by human-made errors.
To that end, we were agreeable on the similarities that both corruption and the virus share:
#1 – It’s a pandemic
When you see the map of the Covid-19 trail of disaster, no country was spared. What is also compelling is that (lest we forgot, our survivor instinct is to live through this dark period one day at a time), corruption travels just as fast as the speed of light, reaching out to all corners of the world. The Corruption Perception Indices by Transparency International show 180 countries scoring between 0 (being `highly corrupt’) and 100 (being `very clean’) and the intensity of the scoring is even represented by colors from sunshine yellow, orange, blood orange, scarlet red to dark red. The CPI map shows more glaring red zones than yellow – is this old and roll-your-eyes boring news? A vaccine will save us from the virus. Whilst there is no vaccine, can social distancing from corruption save mankind in this big bad world?
#2 – `Cash is King’
…famous words uttered by Malaysia’s former premier who is currently undergoing trials for 42 counts of a mixed bag of graft and money-laundering. `Cash is King’, he claimed, is `saving the world from Covid-19’. Of course, he was referring to the Malaysian government’s stimulus packages that had to be poured into the Malaysian economy during these unprecedented times. Businesses are folding up fast. Unemployed people are going hungry and desperate. Supply chains are disrupted due to stopped productions. Anyway, the bets are off for arguing on the other side of the mirror that these are also stimuli for the growth of corruption.
Cash will always be a preferred conduit for corruption in the poorest of countries with a rogue government – these factors pretty much come hand in hand. Living under extreme conditions where a citizen has to bribe their way in just to seek medical treatment, or having to buy favors for patronage in government employment to save one’s family from eternal hunger.
For many economies that are bottoming out, capitalists and their government will find ways to bail one another out of the Covid-19 situation. Sure enough, there is a high price to pay for traces of corruption in this relation, a significant long-term impact to their economies is unfortunately setting back the good progress in anti-corruption compliance.
#3 – Threats to Whistleblowers
There had been allegations that the Chinese government was resolute on ensuring that a whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang kept mum on the disease in its early stages of detection. Sadly, Dr Li had died of the disease himself in February 2020. According to some news reports, there were at least 4 more people who spoke out on the handling of the affairs, that were `silenced’ by the police – they were under house arrest and their movements were restricted.
In other countries where the freedom of speech is always impeded by the government (by lax of rule of law or dictatorship), reporters who are doing their job, and particularly to write exposés on the pervasive corruption in their countries, are to the extent risking their lives. The immense pressure seems to be exerted onto these brave individuals and very little will to right a wrong government. And that is a heavy-sided equilibrium.
How would you like to see the end of corruption?
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