Land of millions

To their enduring shame, corruption and poverty remain the key characteristics of the countries of South Asia. A great many other things have changed in the last decade -- markets have been embraced, nuclear bombs have been exploded -- but those two are constants. And one goes with the other, according to a UN-funded report produced by the Human Development Centre in Islamabad named after the late Mahbubul Haq that master of development economics. No one would seriously disagree with the report's conclusions on the nature and consequences of corruption in the most populous countries of the region, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh though there will be caveats about whether they are unique to this region. But it is right to say South Asian corruption is particularly dangerous. This is so because of the scale of the human consequences of corruption which occurs in the midst of widespread poverty (500 million people), occurs at the top of the establishment, therefore distorts government decision-making and leads tomassive human deprivation and worsens income inequalities.

If the SAARC summit does take place, there would be no better subject to discuss to the exclusion of all else. The removal of corruption is a priority in every capital -- or so it is said. There would be much to learn from each other's methods of rooting it out and success or rather lack of it. In Islamabad a new military chief executive officer is in hot pursuit of hundreds of illegal millions allegedly made by Nawaz Sharif and his family. Before he was deposed, Sharif in turn was raking Benazir Bhutto over the coals for the illegal millions she and her husband had allegedly made. In New Delhi, the pace of the ten-year-old hunt for Bofors beneficiaries has quickened somewhat. So, are the big fish going to fry? According to the Haq report, corruption in this region leads to advancement in politics and commerce rarely to jail. It might have explained that the reason is the solidarity among those who have their hands in the till. In the brotherhood ofthe corrupt no one gets nailed.

Change may be forced upon them. The Haq report finds corruption reduces economic efficiency, increases the cost of basic social services and leads to the breakdown of the rule of law. This is of a piece with the findings of a growing body of international academic work on the economic impact of corruption. All point to the fact that corruption is bad for investment and economic growth. When groups like the one from Berlin cal-led Transparency International rank countries according to how corrupt they are perceived to be, a useful service is performed. In this year's list of 99, India is placed 73rd and Pakistan 88th. If that does not shame the leadership into doing something, it should alarm the establishment because, other things being equal, countries which are perceived to be deeply corrupt will lose investment dollars to those that are less corrupt. A rational choice would be to invest where a higher proportion of funds is put to profitable use, where social and politicalstability can be assumed and where an army of politicians, bureaucrats, fixers and middlemen do not have to be paid off.

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