By David K. Dahn
0775546683/0886568666
dahndavid40@gmail.com
Intellectual Point of Departure
By its connotation, the word ‘enemy’ is a pejorative term which is never taken lightly. The Merriam-Webster dictionary points out that, “an enemy is one that is antagonistic to another especially one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent; something harmful or deadly”. When militarized, an enemy is a military adversary or a hostile unit or force.
The securitization of the phrase “enemy of the state”, is a harsh label to be placed on any individual. An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state, such as treason. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression (en.m.wikipedia.org). Once an individual is considered an enemy of the state, the government can step up terror against the individual, as was the case against the Jews during the Nazi’s holocaust during World War II (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/enemies-of-the-state).
Within the Liberian context, the phrase “an enemy of the state” is used in reference to an individual, particularly an opposition politician who sternly disagrees with or criticizes the actions or policies of the governing establishment.
Being declared “an enemy of the state” is indispensably linked to what Sun Zi’s “The Art of War” equates to a ‘doomed spy’. And security actors understand this language with far-reaching acuteness.
Idiomatically, “let me cut to the chase” by stating that the true enemy of the state is corruption. Therefore, everyone astute in morality should never stop fighting this creeping monster call corruption within the public space.
Corruption Defined:
In the broader sense of the word, corruption describes “impairment of integrity, virtues or moral principle; Inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery); a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
The Oxford Dictionary describes the same subject of corruption as “The destruction or spoiling of anything, especially by disintegration or decomposition; making or becoming morally corrupt; the fact or condition of being corrupt; moral deterioration; depravity”.
The News Diggers(1January,2020), quotes Professor Patrick L.O.Lummuba, as intimating that “corruption must be treated as a crime against humanity, because the vice has killed more people in Africa than all the civil war combined. What our church, civil society and the media must do is to recruit the population. When the public has been enlightened enough to understand, in the simplest terms, that corruption has killed more people than malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis put together, that will be the beginning of success in the battle against the themes in government”. But despite frantic appeals from scholars for humanity to wake up to the choice of history, my libertarian instinct tells me that such appeals are ignored by deliberate choice of either greed, ignorance or arrogance.
In conversations with students at the level of teacher training, seminars and workshops, I got some interesting feedbacks regarding the concept of corruption. For many, corruption means illegal or ill-gotten wealth from the public space. The critical question remains, “Is corruption limited to particular institutions or settings? Stated more plainly, with a veil over the public sector for a minute, can corruption take place in the church, in the mosque, in homes, in private organizations, in market places or in schools? Because human beings run institutions, the possibility exists that something may just go wrong. It’s then advisable that guarding regimes be put into place to counter deviant behaviors.
Political Corruption:
This discourse places a highlight on what is known as political corruption- the use of power by government officials or their network contact for illegitimate private gain.(https//en.m.wikipedia.org) This kind of Corruption includes cronyism, nepotism bribery, embezzlement, and extortion.
According to Oxford Languages, cronyism is the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications. Nepotism, as described by the same Oxford, is the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives, friends or associates especially by giving them jobs. Oxford throws a beaming light on what constitutes extortion- the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. The search engine, Wikipedia discusses bribery as the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting of any item of value to influence the action of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. Wikipedia continues that embezzlement is a term commonly used for a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer.
The Effect of Political Corruption on the Economy:
The scale of corruption varies from one nation to another, yet no nation is insulated from the threat. Therefore, the recommended panacea for every civilized society is strengthening its ethical values. Corruption has a crippling effect which threatens the overall tranquility of the state. Just from the top of my head I try to fathom the costs spent on investigations and trial of corruption cases which, in many instances yield no recovery monetary benefit to the state. Those monies could be used to improve what Professor Paul Collier refers to as photogenic social priorities (health, education, etc.) for our ‘hard to reach citizens’ in remote parts of the country. Another cost to think about is when an issue of corruption springs up within any organization, there is an accompanying legitimacy (acceptability) crisis. Sadly, corruption weakens the talent pool for government positions. Eventually, there is ineffectiveness in the quality of services that should be provided by the government. Additionally, Political corruption erodes trust people have in the public sector to act in the public’s best interests. Corruption wastes taxes and rates meant for important community projects. This results in poor quality services or infrastructure, or projects never getting off the ground(https://www.ibac.vic.gov.au).
As noted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(https://www.unodc.org), political corruption affects the economy of a nation in the following ways:
It results to dysfunctionality of the public and private sector
The cumulative effect of individual corrupt acts is dysfunctionality
Whether offered by the public or private sector, the quality of goods and services decrease, and the process of obtaining them becomes more expensive, time consuming and unfair.
Pulling Factors of Corruption:
According to the Ministry of National Defense Training Program Phase 1B handbook, “The Effect of Corruption on Government” (November 9, 2016), one of the Key pulling factors of corruption is human inclination. The handbook (p.2,) establishes that so long those who are empowered to rule are subject to the very human temptations of greed and self-interest, corruption will be present. Professor John Clammer chips into the argument that placing vulnerable people in a position of temptation pulls corruption.
There is a woven thread that runs through violence and corruption. In many violence prone countries (Liberia’s classic civil conflict), corruption was at its peak owing to lack of controlling regimes and loyalty was tilted towards factional leaders. Those factional leaders were faced with the insurmountable task of contending with war, politics and discipline simultaneously. Where there is a bad system(worst when there is no system) corruption is bound to thrive.
Control Mechanisms:
The discourse on corruption should attract the concern of all because if due care is not taken, as Professor Paul Collier asserts, “administrators or politicians will continue to use the bottom billion merely for photo opportunities.” Here are few points that ‘patriots’ should build on in battling corruption, particularly in the public space. Controlling corruption starts with a leader (any person wielding authority), who, as John Maxwell notes, “knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”. Another key pointer in battling corruption is the courage to uphold the enforcement of laws. Perhaps a mandatory ethics training workshops and seminars for all public officials may be of some help in the fight. There should character clearance from the public in concert with a thorough resourced vetting as was done during the Defense Sector Reform.
Conclusions:
Corruption in the public space undermines democracy. It distorts normal decision-making processes and subverts the policy objectives of legitimate democratic government. Peter Larmour and Nick Wolanin (2001) caution in the fight against corruption that “reliance should not be only on good people but that good systems should be put into place”. Professor John Robert Larmour further reinforces the argument that battling corruption demands “strong organizational culture, a fearless and efficient police force and an independent and fearless press”. Without a concerted citizens’ action against corruption, the state is setup for what my colleague, Johnny Baryougar White, calls “a downhill skate ride”.
Over the years, it seemed corruption which is the real “enemy of the state” became the honey air plane that every self-proclaimed smart individual sought to pilot. In a new asymmetrical warfare against corruption in Liberia, the “tone must be set from the top” by all the leaders( all those who exercise authority over others). After all, the adage resonates that “he who pays the piper calls the tone”. It is not easy to build a sense of communal responsibility and accountability when people lived for decades under rotted system of governance. Under the shadow of the flawed system, four historical events evolved: the emergence of a new class of bureaucrats who became richer than the nation they serve, the emergence of a class of subtle repressive bureaucrats who intentionally crumbled state institutions and replaced their functionalities with theirs, the emergence of a blue or red bereted revolutionization/militarization of politics without a single ideological/cadre school to prepare the youth for future leadership, and the emergence of pseudo-political philanthropists who shrewdly impoverished and robbed the masses of their dignity by keeping them on arm-length handouts in other to invoke loyalty through followership. Without the intention of clinging to vengeful memory, it is the submission of this discourse to simply strengthen historical memory, hopeful that under Liberia’s new political epoch, the tide will turn and the dignity of the people will be restored through the true meaning of the social contract theory.
