FIGHT AGAINST THE WINDMILLS Editorial

Hayots Ashkhar Daily June 11, 2008 Armenia

Judging by the statements of the senior officials and the hurry-scurry
observed in different state agencies, we have started the successive
stage of the fight against corruption.

Exactly 20 years ago, in the spring of 1988, we, the then
citizens of the Soviet Union, heard for the first time the USSR
Supreme Council make a statement on the necessity of eradicating
corruption. Thereafter, the authorities of independent Armenia gave
similar promises many a time, of course being more cautious in their
formulations.

The time passed, the efforts multiplied while corruption in the country
prospered more and more. Apparently, those leading a struggle against
corruption did really predict such a result; therefore they persuaded
themselves as well as society that corruption was widespread all over
the world, and eradicating the phenomenon was impossible.

The revelation was quite substantiated and even useful to everybody. On
the one hand, it justified the permanent existence of dishonest
officials in the state government system, on the other hand, created an
illusion that their number had decreased, at least by couple of people.

Why don’t we ever make a significant progress in the fight against
corruption? There is probably one reason for that: the social "weed"
is being rooted out in one field whereas it grows in a completely
different one. Don’t be lazy; just look through the dictionary of
foreign words and see how corruption is defined there. And you will
see that it is the "dishonest or illegal behavior of public and
political figures".

Yes, figures!

Therefore, whenever we are informed about the arrest of a minor or
average dishonest official, it is not corruption yet. It is bribery,
embezzlement of the state property, but not corruption. That dragon
does not live at the foot of the mountain called "Authority"; it
flies over its top.

>From time to time we hear some people announce that it is necessary
take some measures against corruption, and the officials get into a
panic. No, they are not afraid of anything; they begin to take certain
steps. All kinds of councils and commissions "combating" corruption
begin to multiply as did the collective farms in the period of mass
collectivization. Then, all this dies away in a natural manner till
the next time.

They say corruption is a multi-facial phenomenon, and it is extremely
difficult to combat it. I believe, combating street roguery is,
nonetheless, more difficult. It has so many faces and images that
even an experienced person may become stupefied. While in case of
corruption everything is plain, just on the surface. Let’s take,
for example, the private business of the representatives of the
authorities. What’s the secret here? How many similar facts do there
exist in our reality at present? It is even impossible to count them;
they bear a universal nature.

And how many times have we raised the issue of controlling the income
of the officials? Yes, the issue was raised in the Soviet times as
well, but conversations on that subject did really make some sense
in that period. A Soviet Minister could not buy a summer cottage,
a car and furniture within a year. Except his salaries and bonuses
he was not entitled to anything else.

As a matter of fact, he certainly had more than that, but he was
afraid of showing it off.

As to the present-day officials, they probably do not even remember
how much their salary is. They do not burden their memories with such
kind of trivial matters. Neither are they afraid of anything.

Whereas, it is necessary to bear in mind that corruption produces
a murderous effect. It produces a murderous effect in the strictest
sense of the word. If we look upon the data and try to find out, for
instance, what corruption is in the sphere of medicine, we’ll see
that someone who is entitled to benefit from free medical services
is actually deprived of that right, and this brings about lethal
consequences.

Corruption in the sphere of education means that you may take your
child to a doctor tomorrow, and that doctor may "buy" the examination
grades.

And what is corruption in the law enforcement agencies? It means
that by giving bribe, an intoxicated driver says good-buy to the
car-inspector and runs somebody down on the way, bringing about his
death. As you saw, we brought the simplest examples.

There is a widespread delusion that if business is engaged in
bribery, this has nothing to do with all of us. That’s absolutely
wrong. Because business is not a charity organization, and the whole
value of business corruption eventually determines the value of the
products. And business corruption is as murderous as corruption in
the field of law enforcement, medicine, education etc. Because the
goods and services become expensive, providing less access to the
more disadvantaged groups.

That the authorities currently declare of their intention to fight
corruption is not bad. But if they do not start the fight with serious
changes in the state government system, the long-awaited miracle will
never come true. Because, as one of the wise men noted in his time, it
is impossible to weed out cannibalism in the atmosphere of cannibals.