WE have a phenomenon for which I don’t have any explanation except that there is a general lack of awareness about big official mistakes. These mistakes no longer attract anybody’s attention and nobody even thinks much about them. These violations constitute the beginning of the end of society. The end takes many forms and has various characteristics, the least of which is that society will stop growing and will be dragging behind other societies.
There are areas where corruption is so conspicuous that no monitoring authority is needed to expose it. The officials in such places make distasteful and shameless statements that there is no corruption. This is of course harmful to people’s emotions. I do not want to speak about anyone’s fear of being questioned because this is not a part of their thinking.
In rare cases when one of these officials is relieved from his responsibilities, it is done quietly and only after the situation has reached such a point that no cover-up is possible.
In situations like these, people expect the corrupt official will be put on trial — or at least he will be questioned about the damage that he has done to his department as well as to the public interest. No such thing, however, ever happens. The official leaves his position in order to enjoy the money he has embezzled. He spends the rest of his life like a celebrity with an abundance of worldly goods.
Worse than this is when the official returns to a more important position in authority as if he were being rewarded for his corrupt practices. This conduct represents a grave challenge to all attempts aimed at improving the country and safeguarding its assets. It is a cause for despair and frustration. The spirit of belonging to the country will dwindle when people realize that the corrupt are being rewarded.
