This Used To Be My Playground - Not

The new dawn, new era, new government with changes aplenty afoot ... made me reflect on a story/joke which I heard a long time ago. I posted this back in 2006... now going through it again, it has new inferences.  Before we could only lament about the system.

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Once upon a time, in my dream, I  visited my uncle in the Isle of Putrajaya, it was a nice place, hot and humid, occasional flash floods, plenty of natural resources... in fact very much like Malaysia. He took me around the island state and we had a wonderful time, but by the second day I was feeling ill, probably from gorging myself with all kinds of delicacies. My uncle said, no problem, and took me straight to Hospital PJ, apparently a heavily subsidised government hospital. 

At the check in counter, my uncle chatted intimately with the Head Matron for a few minutes. He came back and said, we should be able to get in and out quick. He told me there were three types of physicians I could see, all cost the same - traditional medicine department, western medicine department or mental retardation department. There were 3 queues, one to each of the respective departments, the longest being for western medicine, I think there were about 50 people. The traditional medicine line was shorter with just 20 people, about the same for those suspicious looking types lining for mental treatment.

Naturally, I ruled out the third option, and told my uncle that I preferred traditional medicine as the line was shorter. My uncle whispered to the Head Matron and she held my hand leading me to go pass the queue to traditional medicine. 

I was shocked and embarrassed at the same time. I mean, to jump the queue of 20 people in front of me, they must be waiting for at least 2 hours before they get to see the doctor. Plus I was fearing that someone in the queue might jump out and curse at my queue jumping for no apparent reason - I mean, I wasn't the sickest one there by a mile, and I am certainly not even near my retirement age, and I am certainly not physically handicapped in any way (that I know of). But the people in the queue were quiet, some even nodded to me as I passed them. 

The doctor treated me patiently and thoroughly, and as I walked back out past the line of people, some even smiled and waved goodbye. My shock and embarrassment have turned into a power trip, I remember thinking "Hey, this is cool, I jumped queue and no one even showed me ugly faces... man, my uncle must know some important people here". It felt good. It felt so good that I turned to my uncle and said, "Well, since I am here, you think I could also visit the western medicine doctor?" Half hoping not to offend my uncle, but he said it was "No problem". We did the same thing again, only this time, the queue was much longer, but the same response I got. I was feeling quite full of myself, it felt like walking on air, exaggerated self-importance is a wonderful feeling I say. Heck, initially I felt sorry for those in the queue, but that kinda evaporated by now.

Coming out of the western physician's office, an outrageous thought crossed my mind, why don't I visit the mental physician too, just for the fun of it. I told my uncle that, and he whispered to the Head Matron, and off we went, passing each weird looking person in the queue to the mental department. I looked at each of them as I walked past them, some stared blankly towards the ceiling, another just buried his face in his hands, then there was one with his mouth wide open making squawking noises every 3 seconds. I was almost at the door of the physician when a lady in the queue stepped out, stared me down, stopping me in my tracks. She was quite pretty too, but there was something weird about her. She was circling her left nipple with her index finger (non-stop). There was an uncomfortable silence, I couldn't stop staring and I didn't know where to look .... then she blurted out "Hey, who do you think you are.... don't you need to line up like everyone else ... or are you mentally retarded?" ... and then she gave out this bone chilling laughter that I will never forget. The end.

So, who are you - are you in the queue keeping quiet, why are we in line in the first place, are you the gatekeeper like the matron, are you like my uncle, who actually runs the hospital ... and who is the mental one in the parable?

My Simple Economic Theory On Corruption

This Should Be My Phd Thesis

Let's just concentrate on Asia. What a beginning to 2006 - people power rallies in the Philippines and Thailand - the Asean economies as a whole have a clouded track record when it comes to corruption (with the notable exception of Singapore). It affects business, foreign investment and equality. The poor and the powerless remain defeated. Those who are honest lose out in shady deals. The ones in power favours the well connected. I think every country have some sort of corruption, just that the pervasiveness of it differs. The selected rankings below are based on approximately 150-155 countries over 2004 and 2005 as reported and surveyed - the 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index. More information on their sampling and scoring methodology can be obtained from www.icgg.org/corruption.cpi_2005-data.html

Oct 2005 Ranking - Country (2004's Ranking) - Score Out Of 10
1 Iceland (3) - 9.7
2 Finland (1) - 9.6
3 New Zealand (2) - 9.6
4 Denmark (3) - 9.5
5 Singapore (5) - 9.4
....
9 Australia (9) - 8.8
....
11 UK (11) - 8.6
....
15 Hong Kong (16) - 8.3
16 Germany (15) - 8.2
17 USA (17) - 7.6
....
21 Japan (24) - 7.3
....
30 UAE (29) - 6.2
....
32 Taiwan (35) - 5.9
....
39 Malaysia (38) - 5.1
40 South Korea (47) - 5
....
46 South Africa (44) - 4.5
....
59 Thailand (64) - 3.8
....
77 China (67) - 3.2
78 Sri Lanka (67) - 3.2
....
88 India (87) - 2.9
....
107 Vietnam (102) - 2.6
....
117 Philippines (97) -2.5
....
126 Russia (90) - 2.4
....
137 Indonesia (133) - 2.2
....
157 Bangladesh (144) - 1.7
158 Chad (141) - 1.7

Here comes my Phd thesis:

1) A country's level of corruption and its pervasiveness is correlated to the level of power to the government/authorities - i.e. the more power resides in a government, the more pervasive will be corruption. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The seperation of power and where it resides - if more power is concentrated in the ruling government, away from the people, it gives rise to higher levels of corruption. As a country becomes more democratic, people will demand for more equality and accountability, governments can and will be voted in and out of offices.

2) A country's level of corruption is also correlated to the development stage of a country's economy - i.e. the more developed a nation, the more they will demand for corruption to be eliminated. This rest on the premsie that once the basic needs of the people have been met, then they go for higher aesthetics.

So, these two premise would explain much of where a country is in the corruption index. The exception being Singapore as the level of corruption is near zilch but democracy has been curtailed - well, Singapore is a unique state as it is run more like a well-oiled comapny.

If the above two conjectures are "true", it has important implications. One, we need to move a country's right to democracy, elevate people's power, so that corruption will take its natural course of evolution to die down. You cannot wish for "no corruption" and DO NOTHING. The above conjectures indicate that we need to increase the level of democracy of a country in order to fight corruption. (Again, the exception being Singapore).

The more power resides in a government, the greater will be the prevasiveness of corruption. (Again, Singapore is the exception). In an emerging or less developed nation, power generally resides with a small group of politicians - hence the propensity for corruption. We should always then strive for smaller "governments" and better transparency.

Also, for those countries on low levels of corruption, do not gloat, the main reasons you are there is because you are generally smaller, easier to pre-planned and institute changes, made it easier to reform education, regroup and restructure industries when necessary, ... you get the drift. Be thankful you are there, but also do not look down on nations who are lower down the ladder, there are many reasons why they are there.

I guess the main theory I have is that each country probably CANNOT GET AWAY from the life cyle of corruption. Can you get a country from emerging market status to developed status withn 3 years - no, it has to take its natural course of evolution. If the government were to take the lead in a very strong way (such as Singapore did), it could quicken the evolutionary process enormously. Hence a country takes 10 years or 30 years to halve its level of corruption - it all depends on how proactive the government has been.... please listen!!!

From the transparency index, especially at the bottom quartile, we can also see that a country can have a lot of corruption mainly because it is very poor. That, we have to bear in mind. Who can afford integrity when you haven't eaten for a week? This is the other side of corruption - when it is a matter of just surviving or, a life or death matter.

From a business stand point, many companies in Asia have been diversifying into other countries, either for construction, utilities, toll roads, exploration, etc... As investors, they will have to be more careful with the countries they are getting into bed with. There is no need to list out which Asian companies have been to where and when ... investors just need to be a lot more cautious when companies announce that they are going to ventures in the following countries: (this is not a slight on the countries mentioned below, but a hint on where they are in the corruption index)

105 Khazakstan
108 Ukraine
111 Zimbabwe
118 Libya
123 Uganda
125 Niger
128 Cambodia
132 Papua New Guinea
140 Uzbekistan
143 Pakistan
149 Sudan
150 Tajikistan