Losing the Fight over Corruption

 “Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain . It hurts the integrity of people in a position of authority .” (Transparency International ) 

  No country in the world doesn’t suffer from corruption . No country in the world is immune from it . It ranges from the United States to Venezuela to African nations to the Middle East reaching Asia.

Corruption is often stated as one of the reasons for the Arab spring . So fed up were the Arab citizens of different Arab countries with their governments and their systems that often never gave them a fair chance – where hope for the future was bleak- where children and young people could not be guaranteed a decent life and where corruption was rife-that they took to the streets.

Syria, like the rest of the Arab countries, suffered from corruption . The economy was under socialist inspired policies characterized by extensive regulation ( indeed  there were numerous government departments each with an opaque bureaucracy and discretionary powers) protectionism and  public ownership – all these are policies vulnerable to pervasive corruption and slow growth.

 In 2005 the Baath party congress called for the creation of a” social market economy” without ever defining what the term meant .A lot of Syrians blame that economy for the poverty it left behind and the chasm it created between classes-a phenomenon not common to Syrians before! Economy also suffered because of a persistent drought that devastated farming communities in North Eastern Syria .

Everyone was aware of corruption in Syria including  the government,  and indeed there was a lot of emphasis by the president himself on fighting corruption with positive results being achieved, but on a minor scale. With the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Israeli aggression on Lebanon in 2006 followed by the Israeli war on Gaza in 2010 fighting corruption never got prioritized.

It is understandable that at the beginning of the crisis in Syria corruption was one of the reasons why people took to the streets-but could corruption be a reason for kidnapping? Or for raping? or indeed for killing?

The minute the ‘revolution” armed itself, it lost its fight against corruption! Indeed it lost its credibility! Had it remained peaceful and accepted negotiations with the government, then many of the grievances would have been addressed-grievances caused by corruption.

A quick look at Dara’ will prove the point. The people of Dara’ had suffered sorely over two points-selling land that was considered to be on the boundary line and the second point had to do with the digging of wells. Some bureaucracy procedures  left the people of Dara’ then, unhappy and dissatisfied and rightly so! But surely now they are even more unhappy and more deeply dissatisfied with the results than before?

Reem Haddad