Without an effective graft and corruption-proof system in place, the government will continue to be conducive to parasites and thieves. Moral transformation? Nothing more than a campaign slogan. Change from within? Sounds like an emo tune. Public vigilance? As if people would act collectively at the first sign of trouble. I think the only way to rid the government of graft and corruption is by making it an unappealing and even dangerous environment for grafters and corruptors.
First and foremost, if it were up to me, the principle of presumption of innocence would be thrown out the window insofar as dealing with mid to top level government officials is concerned. Why not? With great power comes great responsibility. Being a government official should be treated as an aggravating factor.
Okay, that may be extreme so I’ll just settle for the following:
A law that would have the spouse/partner and of age children of an official accused of graft and corruption treated as accomplices and charged similarly. This should make perfect sense after all it can be assumed that the gains of the official’s thievery also benefited those closest to him or her. (Don’t you just hate it when a corrupt official’s children get to study in the best schools abroad using stolen taxpayers’ money while many are forced to keep their children enrolled in crappy schools? And what about the spouse who gets to spend ill-gotten wealth on luxuries while the poor barely meet their daily needs despite their hard labor?) It’s quite impossible especially for the spouse not to know anything. So I say have them all face the consequence. Let’s see if any state worker or official would continue to dip their hands in the national coffers when the stakes are this high.
How about a law that would make nepotism and establishing political dynasties punishable by life imprisonment with no possibility of parole or clemency? I would prescribe death as punishment but that would be too easy a punishment for these opportunists. I say let them all rot in prison for the longest period of time possible.
Admittedly, these are all just raw and general ideas. I leave the responsibility of threshing out the details to our lawmakers. Then again, they may not have the balls to formulate measures that have real teeth to stop graft and corruption.
What do you think?
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I think it would make logical sense to even have the officer’s family be responsible also for, as the writer has shared, “…it can be assumed that the gains of the official’s thievery also benefited those closest to him or her.” Which in all logical sense the family would have to know it was stolen since we know that to gain such welth like that would have to be done by stealing it from the tax payers.
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lpgd Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
paul,
thanks for dropping by.
now, while i would still like to see such a law enacted i have since realized that there are other ways to address government corruption. thanks to a friend of mine, i am now convinced that rapid and massive economic development would also help a lot in stopping or at least minimizing corruption. my friend explained that if the economy is great and people including government workers and officials are paid handsomely the risk of them being tempted to engage in graft and corruption would be minimized.
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John Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 3:18 am
That might seem reasonable and we all wish to be paid better but by my honest experience here in the Philippines, someone making 10,000 pesos a month is like someone earning $2000 in america and the 10,000 pesos has better advantages than than the $2000 the only way the $2000 has greater advantages is when they have saved up they can enjoy a trip out of their country until the Filipino who would have a harder time which does seem unfair but when the two stay in their own country and does not wish to leave, it seem the Filipino wins in this one by my own personal observation.
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