Kommentar af Ferid Belhaj, Verdensbankens direktør for Mellemøsten
Kan det virkelig være rigtigt: Højtstående politikere nærmest kappes om at bekæmpe korruptionen og flere af dem øver åben selvkritik i et land, der ligger helt nede i den sorte ende.
Once an unmentionable endemic, corruption seems to have gained the honor of the limelight. It is now at the forefront of the public debate in Lebanon.
Today, Lebanon’s political scene is watching in amazement as government ministers compete in a race to show how seriously each of them is taking the fight against corrupt practices. They are pushing ahead with an often controversial crackdown, publicly naming suspected felons.
Food importers and eateries, medicines, hospitals, schools, customs and many other public and private entities have all been targeted. It is an unprecedented campaign against corruption that has revealed the enormity of the perils to the health and pockets of citizens.
Ingen troede på kampagnen, men…..
At its launch last year, the population, stung by years of illicit practices, was dismissive of (afvisende overfor) the clampdown.
The fear was that it was yet another public relations stunt by the government to win support in an unfavorable and extreme political climate. Lawbreakers figured if they lay low, they would ride the wave. Wrong, it seems…But for how long?
Hardly a day passes without a public announcement of new lists of offenders.
Some of the country’s most popular service providers, and, more importantly, influential personalities, once deemed politically connected untouchables have all come under the spotlight.
Stærke ord fra finansministeren
“Lebanon is grappling with the ugliest facet of corruption and that is political corruption,” announced Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil at a recent conference.
Both his strong statement and the actual forum, where corruption was addressed in public from all its aspects, broke an erstwhile taboo even in a country that boasts freedom, equality and development parity.
The forum on March 18 was entitled “Fighting Corruption in Practice, not Words”. But little did the public or the participants for that matter imagine they would hear both public and harsh self-criticism from officials across the political spectrum.
“We live in a regime that allows any individual to engage in corrupt practices at all levels and enjoy political protection from within and from outside the (government) institutions,” the Minister of Finance told the forum.
There is no turning back in the campaign to flush out havens of corruption, he stressed, but this is only a small step that remains incomplete without comprehensive (samlet) political reform.
Kynisme er en nationalsport
Cynicism is a national sport in Lebanon. Still, leading panelists emerged from the day-long forum with a feeling that the train of reform may finally be on track following the persistent ringing of alarm bells.
Remember, Lebanon’s downward slope was once again evident in Transparency International’s Annual Corruption Perceptions Index, where it ranked 136th out of 175 in 2014.
Corruption in Lebanon has indeed been spreading in both the public and private sectors in many blatant forms.
Still, for many years it remained a taboo. “Whispered in private circles, but never discussed in public,” as the minister noted. Now it is out in the open.
Læs videre på
http://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/fighting-corruption-in-lebanon
Begynd fra: “Lebanon is not unique in its struggle to combat…”
(Kilde: Verdensbankens blog-univers)
