INDIA has much corruption. When one of their own threatened to starve himself to death unless they passed tougher anti-corruption laws, you can be sure he had reached the end of the line.
For him, the corruption levels have soared to such heights the only worthwhile appeal for action was death.
Africa, a friend of India in many political and economic respects — Mahatma Gandhi spent some time in South Africa — has much corruption to speak of.
South Africa itself teems with corruption incidents reported daily in the media.
The case of Julius Malema, accused of lining his pockets with “dud” fund projects, is only one of many politicians cited for using their political clout to make a fortune.
Transparency International has constantly focused on African corruption as being almost endemic.
The continent’s two largest economies, South Africa and Nigeria, are said to be so riddled with corruption hardly a day passes by without some prominent politician or businessperson being reported as having done this or that thing to earn the opprobrium of this or that human rights group in the country.
People have tried to defend corruption — in Africa and elsewhere — by saying even Jesus, while on earth, failed to make a distinct impact on the eradication of corruption.
But why does the Commandment “Thou shalt not steal” have relevance here?
And why is it said to be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven?
If this is not dismissed as more religious scaremongering, then we must assume that all who cherish obscene wealth particularly that acquired through evil means are disgusting specimen of the human race.
The fight against graft in Africa is as problematic as our fright against dictatorship: It’s distinctly life-threatening, witness the massacres which occurred in Tunisia, Egypt and Tunisia — before the people’s struggles triumphed.
It is true that Africa is not the only place riddled with corruption — India is an example.
The threat by a 74-year-old citizen to starve himself to death in the cause of tougher legislation against corruption did not provoke the response from the government that would have been expected in Africa — shooting of the man’s sympathisers.
India’s democracy is alive and well. Even if the action was criticised for undermining democracy, there was no violent reaction from the government, nor from opposition parties trying to make political capital out of the demonstration.
To suggest that the reaction of the average African government would have been violent is not to be especially critical of our own systems.
It is not, as some pan-Africanists might say — “self-hate”.
This is an expression used to criticise Africans who are constantly critical of our systems of government.
Once again, such comments are believed to be representative of “lackeys of imperialism”, easily hoodwinked into believing that only the West has the wisdom to criticise Africa.
The idea that African unity was based on the premise that no African country or leader can do wrong is absurd.
In the recent conflicts on the continent, there was no unity on reaction to the killings of thousands of people in Tunisia, the Ivory Coast, Egypt and Libya.
No recognition seemed to be taken of the fact that Africans were killing other Africans because there was disagreement on the way to solve a problem confronting the people: the economy was benefiting one group of people, not all groups.
The tragically graphic example set by the young Tunisian vendor could have been repeated in many other countries on the continent: women vendors struggling to feed their children while ministers’ wives spent time each year shopping at the top people’s shop in London, Harrods’.
No African critic of our political or economic systems would call for an immediate end to all corruption in government.
It would be an outlandish call even in the United States or France or Britain: in France, a former president is being brought to court for committing a crime while he was mayor of Paris.
They know that even if they seem to look down upon their former colonies as inferior in most respects, they are no better, in the end.
We are all just flesh and blood, fallible as hell.
Bill Saidi is veteran
journalist based in Harare
