Five Arabic countries top the list of most corrupt. Whether that is due to lack of government transparency or pervasive social habit, remains a geographical issue.
The map, and lists above, were compiled by businessmen and analysts.
The top countries are Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Lybia. Some of these countries have undergone great shifts due to geopolitical unrest and recent or current wars, so that the country is functioning on two distinct levels, one governmental or military, and the other by some militia or force that is in the streets, such as in Syria and Somalia.
But even in places where there has been or still is a US military presence, such as in Somalia and Afghanistan, corruption is rampant. Afghanistan in particular is an example of how foreign occupation does little to curtail corruption. In many ways, one could say that the opportunities generated by the US occupation of Afghanistan has in itself created the premise for more corruption, as people vie for lucrative contracts with both the US forces and US contractors.
But such deterioration is not alwasy caused by conflict. Some of it is caused by foreign interference, when foreign countries bribe heads of state or other functionaries to obtain entry into some commercial sector of that country.
In other countries, corruption was a child of inefficient government, which led the public to use a parallel system of commerce, or black markets to get by. If such sub-system survives for long, it can establish a pattern that is very hard to eradicate or ameliorate.
In other countries, such as India for example, or Egypt, where the judicial system is inefficient or at a standstill, the inability to have some recourse in the courts leads to secondary arrangements that become part and parcel of society and lead people with less influence to have to pay off people with more, in order for things to function at least minimally and get by.
The problem with the map, however, is that it shows that corruption, if anything, has become more pervasive and even spread to places where it was present moderately or not at all. That is the most concerning aspect of this issue. Corruption breeds criminal activity and undermines global security.
In fact, as of last year, more than two thirds of the 177 countries surveyed scored below 50, an indication that transparency is lacking and public institutions are not doing what they were instituted for.
Source :Al Jazeera/ 12.3.13
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