analysis

In a recent poll conducted worldwide amongst its viewers, the BBC World television discovered that what they fear most is the United States' unchallenged global influence, followed by the spreading might of big corporations capable of swallowing nation-states. Corruption took third place. Terrorism was amongst the last candidates of evil.

Corruption, broadly the act of stealing public money or using one’s political influence to steal, is a worldwide problem leading to anarchies and revolt. Liberia’s disintegration was justified on the basis of fighting corruption and its lifeblood tyranny. But what has since emerged is armed robbery respected. With a gun in hand and the ability to enlist children to fight and die, Liberians have shown how well corruption pays in political garment. The task ahead is to prove that while it may temporarily, it has serious consequences. This means shown to the public---if there is to be confidence in the political system--- that corruption is a crime. It should not be rewarded but punished.

Tears over the harmful effect of theft in government are pouring—from market women demanding to know why state funds are so blatantly stolen, to political actors. Opposition politician Mrs Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, speaking before lawyers recently, said corruption in Liberia was climbing and climbing. In many state agencies, she said, officials refuse to accept checks. They want cash. She then took a jibe at her fellow politicians who, she said, “exploit” the people and the throw crumbs at them so be elected.

Crudely ambitious politicians have suddenly become Good Samaritans, showing “concern” for the poor by not championing policies and issues that could free them from the bondage of dependence, but cementing dependence. The act of showing so-called generosity by throwing ill earned on money on victims of greed and graft was extended by Charles Taylor, although all Liberian leaders have come to believe that stealing from the public coffers to buy popularity is rewarding when it is not. The mob will clap for anyone that throws pennies at it, but they soon forget when the belly becomes empty. To sustain such approval by the mob, the politicians must continue giving and giving.

The intractable nature of corruption in Liberia permeating every facet of society, is primarily due to the fact most who enter politics do so as very poor creatures, many exiles who return home not to build, but to steal and take their loot back homes in their country exile in America or Europe. Countries that harbour such thieves are realising that in the end, pressure on them to spend millions to cover the holes of the sanctioned armed robbery becomes a vicious circle. Samuel Doe receive half a billion dollars in aid from Uncle Sam as a dependable ally. In the end, he created costing far in monetary alone, and difficult to measure in human terms. Charles Taylor was hailed as man to do business with by some members of the Clinton administration, even if his business was death and producing refugees that American dollars feed. This is why the US ambassador John Blaney must be constantly be congratulated for vowing that Liberian officials who milk their country only to fatten the already fat cow that America is will be pursued, whether or not they are US citizens. When this vow becomes policy implemented, men like Blaney should be crowned for seeing the evils that corruption represents.

Stealing in the name of politics has taken loftier dimensions. Today’s thieves with the AK-47 in hand to become ministers or speaker of what Liberians call their legislature, steal to invest in their country, but to pay their bills in their homes of residence because they have no confidence in their own country. Why should they? They are smart enough to conclude that theft breeds, particularly what is now armed robbery legalised, eventually leads to anarchy. Thus they are better off with their looted dollars in America, all to buy time and return with a super agenda of stealing clothed in political demands.

Interin chair Charles Gyude Bryant, while in the US, and in answering a question, said he had no time to run after thieves. If people stole, that was their luck. The product of such thinking is that theft of public funds becomes normal, killing effort towards accountability and therefore development. But to investigate others is setting the stage to be investigated; too, a fearful prospect when one does not know meaning of stealing.

But it was the same Bryant who promised a probe of his Governor of the National Bank, a man who cannot be dismissed regardless because, he said, the super-government called ECOWAS said his position was untouchable as demanded by the peace agreement. Since the promise, the case has been forgotten. Allegations that he has ordered the renovation of his sitter’s house at the price tag of $500,000 were denied, with the Ministry oaf Information saying the cost of renovation was a mere $100,000. If Bryant has moved into his sister’s house, it would be interesting to know how much the government is paying her and who really paid for the renovation despite the government’s denial that funds came from state coffers.

The government is extremely relaxed in dealing with theft within it ranks, and this is because it has been accepted as the norm. None of the Commissions agreed upon in the Ghana peace agreement has been allowed to function and may not until elections next year when the thieves line-up for another round.

The effect of this stealing with impunity is so evident. While state officials are running to America with their loot to pay mortgages, expectations are that others should pay for getting the country back on track. If donor is an indication, then this act of stealing and expecting others’ money, perfected by the Charles Taylor and his cronies, will not work. Of the $39.2 million UN agencies want to help returnees and the internally displaced, donors have given a mere $3m, the same amount Bryant pumped into the pockets of the Lebanese George Haddad for cars.

Tears are not enough in fighting a plague. Without confronting it at all levels, it will remain the rationale for upheavals. Thieves feel no tears, only punishment.