Freedom of expression is valuable. But not every expression is worth in gold or even a broken dime. Last week Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his thoughts on corruption at the site of a development project.
“A lot is worth probing in this country. Believe me if we start probing then our time would be spent in that and all this (development) work would be left undone. There is so much to be probed; the problem of embezzlements or corruption scandals cannot be overstated,” said PM Nawaz (original quote in Urdu).
Whether he meant that his time should not be wasted in his own investigation after the Panama Case, or whether he was subtly saying that the PML-N could also task government institutions to probe the members of his political opponents, is a matter best left to real politic interpreters.
Regardless, such statements do not suit a person who holds the highest political office of the country. It does not suit him, not only because he is to appear before a joint investigation team, but more importantly, because it is morally repulsive to put economic growth and development before corruption.
In the obsession with economic growth and development, where does one draw the line? Would PM Nawaz be comfortable putting economy first and democracy second? When a CEO is involved in insider trading, would he allow the SECP and Board of Directors to look the other way just because the CEO turned around a sick company and made it profitable? Would he also support a man who kidnaps a malnourished girl from an ultra-poor household, takes away her honour, and at the same time tries to ‘make good’ by providing her healthy food, education, clothing, toys, and shelter? Surely not.
Granted that certain rights often offset certain wrongs; but crimes against constitution, crimes of corruption, or kidnapping cannot be mitigated by economic growth or development. Freedom from official corruption may not be a universal and inalienable right to which every citizen is inherently entitled to, but there is no doubt that corruption eventually violates the universal human rights. And that the delivery of public services, the functioning of markets, and the exercise of democratic rights are also impaired by corruption.
Tomes of both traditional wisdom and modern academic research suggest that the problem of corruption cannot only be fixed through institutional or governance reforms.
A change in behaviour and social norms to eradicate the acceptability of corruption at all levels of society also needs to be exhibited and demanded by ordinary citizens and leaders alike, for there is no a messiah or a magic bullet out there. In that vein, the prime minister’s statement last week comes in poor taste.
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