Who
isn’t corrupt?
This
article has been translated from Urdu by Rumaisa Ahmad, an A Level
student in Karachi and has appeared in A2 exam conducted by Cambridge
University of London in 2011. She had qualified for "I Earn", an
Americal Scholarship, but didn't go USA because of parental attachment.
She is quite ambitious and adventureus. She has interest in pursuing
Mechatronic Engg. Let us pray for her true success!
Everybody you look at has got issues with corruption and suggesting it
should end. Are only a handful of people that get popularized on
televisions and newspapers for their deeds corrupt and the majority of
people in our society completely honest? Or perhaps most of the people
are frauds and only a few of them remain sincere. The difference is
that people can only spot huge malpractices and those committed by
others and can’t focus on small acts of corruption. But the fact is
that a person starts from small acts of dishonesty and then drift to
bigger ones. If a person is willing to accept a bribe of fifty bucks,
what’s stopping him from accepting five million? To be
honest, whenever an opportunity comes up for somebody he takes it up
and what’s interesting is that he simultaneously maligns corruption.
Are only governmental officers, policeman, politicians, robbers,
dacoits and smugglers corrupt?
Let’s see where, in our own society, corruption has taken roots an
where it has been warded off.
Who isn’t corrupt?
- That doctor who squeezes money out of
his patients by ordering unnecessary check ups, don’t attend properly
in hospitals but take extra care of their patients in private clinics:
aren’t they corrupt?
- People who bring down standards of good
work by preferring incompetent people over competent ones in the name
of reservation: aren’t they corrupt?
- The businessman who well Chinese
products with Japanese labels, cheap products by calling them
high-quality goods and muddle up good products with bad ones: isn’t he
corrupt?
- The cabdriver, auto rickshaw driver and
porter that take excessive fares : aren’t they corrupt?
- That school teacher who doesn’t
concentrate in class when teaching at school but is fully focused while
giving private tuitions: isn’t he corrupt?
- That factory owner and businessman who
aims for optimum benefits but only allows enough wages for his
employees so that their lives are hanging by a thread to their bodies:
isn’t he corrupt?
- Isn’t that worker who doesn’t perform
his duties responsibly corrupt?
- Isn’t the student who spends his
parents’ money on studies but doesn’t pay full attention to his studies
also a fraud?
- People who intimidate others to gain
contracts, jobs and admissions: don’t they grab what’s rightfully
somebody else’s?
- The manager who selects his relative,
somebody belonging to his nation or area despite his worthlessness over
somebody capable: isn’t he corrupt?
- Those people who, instead of buying
software worth of lacks, copy it without buying or use blacked copies
that cost less: aren’t they also corrupt?
- Aren’t those who use a binding contract
as sacred as marriage as a way of trading crooked?
- People who do not take out the exact
measure of charity that is asked of them, and only for namesake give a
little bit to the needy leaving them in their misery while spending
that same money recklessly for their amusement: are they not corrupt?
- The public who mourns and wails the
corruption of its leaders, but when its time for the people who want to
help the general public to get elected, they accept a little bit of
money or in the name of friendship, relations, personal link and nation
help the wrong kind of people in succeeding to posts: is it not corrupt?
- That journalist who opens fire on
people who can’t provide him any advantages but remains silent
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 against
those who bestow favors upon him: isn’t he corrupt?
- Buyers of religion that complicate
faith, provoke differences and create distance and make mountains of
mole hills: aren’t they corrupt?
-
That beggar, who flashes a
minor handicap to ask for alms and after years of heavy earning, is
still insistent on begging: isn’t he corrupt too?
- Middle class
who uses fake sorrow on every issue and trade sympathies to gain fandom
but never accomplish anything for real to improve themselves: aren’t
they corrupt?
- People who envy other’s capabilities,
wealth and good looks and spread false rumors around the: aren’t they
sleazy?
-
The group that gathers money in the name of various
institutions but
does not spend it with honesty on those in need of it: isn’t that group?
- The public which shows no regard for
its imam/guide and state laws: isn’t it corrupt?
-
The person, who skips ahead in queues, exceeds the speed
limit
causing accidents, bugs his neighbor by listening to loud music, and
tries to impress society with unnecessary displays of wealth: isn’t he
corrupt?
Now the question is how many of us would be cited in
the list above and in our own ways, in our professional life, are
guilty of malpractice?
How much honesty can we expect
from those who spend lacks on bribes to get jobs, or millions to win
elections?
Can we demand excellence from those who get jobs on reservations?
And the society that is swamped up with frauds, how can their leaders
be dignified?
The arrival of Lokpal bill has made us hopeful but how can one law help
us curtail corruption in a place where every fiber of beings is
drenched in this theft?
Will it change anything if we continue with our illicit activities but
demand honesty from others?
It’s not a probability, until the entire system changes we cant
eliminate corruption. And till when, by the good grace of certain
individuals, can we maintain a minimum of corruption?
Shouldn’t we correct the entire system and focus on a permanent
solution?
Now the question is why are we zooming in on other’s fraudulent
behavior?
It’s useless to even discuss the matter if we only focus on others and
not ourselves. It’s like a virus that has spread in our veins and we
can’t get rid of it with that ease. For betterment everybody has to be
aware, self-accountable and honest with respect to their duties. It
will not help to magnify huge cases of corruption and overlook or
encourage minor ones and we will never be able to stop it.
So if we truly wish to put an end to it, why don’t we start with
spotting out and correcting our fraction of the evil deed? Or
everything would remain the same and this game would continue. Whoever
sees an opportunity would make use of it and those who couldn’t benefit
themselves would start whining till they get their own opening and the
patronizing crowd would change but the corruption would continue.
Is the Lokpal bill alone enough to deal with corruption or do we have
to change people’s perspectives and responses?
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