Tooba Altaf
The latest survey report titled “Global Corruption Barometer-Asia” by Transparency International came with significant revelations. According to the report, corruption remains to be a major problem in Asia, damaging public trust in the governments and equitable access to public services.
The report surveyed 17 Asian countries, comprising India, China, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, Maldives, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Malaysia. Among these states gauged for corruption, the most telling case of corruption is India, topping the list. Its ranking had also been grim when in an earlier report, issued by Transparency International, in January, at the Davos World Economic Forum. Then India was at 80th among the 180 countries in the Global Corruption Perception Index.
The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) surveyed nearly 20,000 people in Asia from March 2019 to September 2020. The survey gauged the corruption against six key public services viz, police, courts, procurement of identity documents, utilization of basic public utilities, public schools and hospitals.
India emerged as the most corrupt country in Asia, with highest bribery rate of 39% and the highest rate for using personal connections to avail public services, at 46%. The countries following the Indian lead in bribery, are Cambodia and Indonesia, with 37% and 30% respectively. While in case of personal connections, Indonesia and China, 36% and 32% respectively, are ranked after India.
The staggering toll of the people who paid a bribe accounted for 836 million people in the region. Corruption manifesting itself either in the form of bribery or personal connections, plaque the Asian societies at large. The situation is compounded by the slow and complicated bureaucratic process, unnecessary red tape and unclear regulatory frameworks, forcing citizens to seek out alternate solutions to access basic services through networks of familiarity and petty corruption.
These indicators highlight deflection from the path they are supposed to be treading, as most of them occupy the status of a developing state. While embarked on the path of development, such a high ratio of corruption, particularly the perception of the public, thinking the government sector is involved in most of the corruption, does not bode well for governance. It reveals low level of public trust in their respective governments, which can hamper the path to sustainable development.
Historically, the nations with high level of trust in their governments, have more prospects of growth and development. As evidenced by the research conducted by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson in their book, “Why Nations Fail,” reveals the underlying cause of prosperity of some nations compared to the others. According to the authors, the nature of the institutions determines the trajectory of a nation’s development. The processes of institutional drift as a result of historical currents and critical junctures, which molded the modern political and economic institutions across the states, are responsible for present status of the nations. The polities with inclusive political and economic institutions, focused on power-sharing versus those with the extractive political and economic institutions, amassing the resources at the expense of the ordinary masses, has shaped the current world we live in. Consequently, we have this global north and south, imaginary bifurcation, dividing humanity across the globe.
It is high time for Asian nations, which path they want to tread on; history might offer some assistance.
The author Tooba Altaf is an International Relations graduate while working as a Researcher at the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Islamabad.
