Can "decriminalizing" corruption work in Pakistan as they tried to do in Romania?

[MenInG]

Sounds stupid but could this work in Pakistan?


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/...criminalising-corruption-170201165154518.html

More than 100,000 people have taken to the streets in the Romanian capital to protest against an emergency government decree decriminalising a string of corruption offences.

Protesters on Wednesday evening in Bucharest shouted "Rats" and carried banners that read "The morning shift", sending a message that the protests will continue until the government resigns.

The marches against the government's move followed similar protests a day earlier.

Some 130,000 people marched in Bucharest, while another 100,000-150,000 were estimated by riot police to have joined similar rallies in 55 other towns and cities, including Timisoara, Cluj, Iasi and Sibiu.

Romania's top judicial watchdog announced a court challenge on Wednesday against the government decree decriminalising a number of corruption offences in what critics say is the biggest retreat on reforms since the country joined the European Union a decade ago.

The decree, unveiled by the Social Democrat-led government of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu after it took power earlier this month, has drawn sharp criticism and triggered the biggest street protests since the fall of communism in Romania in 1989.

If enforced, the decree would, among other things, decriminalise abuse-of-power offences in which the sums involved were less than 200,000 lei ($48,000).

That would put an end to an ongoing trial of Social Democrat party leader Liviu Dragnea, who is accused of using his political influence to secure state salaries for two people working at his party headquarters between 2006 and 2013. Dozens of MPs and mayors across all parties stand to benefit from the decree.

"I don't understand what protesters are upset about," Dragnea told reporters on Tuesday.

Two opposition parties, the opposition Liberals and the Save Romania Union (USR), announced they would file a no-confidence motion on Wednesday against the government, which enjoys a comfortable majority in parliament.

As parliament opened for its first regular session of the year, USR politicians paraded banners that read "Shame" while other opposition deputies shouted "Resignation" and "Thieves".

Entrenched corruption

President Klaus Iohannis took part in an emergency meeting of Romania's top magistrates' body, the Superior Magistrates' Council (CSM), telling reporters afterwards: "The problem is that one cannot act the way the government did in a country with the rule of law, which Romania is and wants to remain."

CSM president Mariana Ghena said she would file a challenge with the constitutional court by the end of the day.


Romanians with anti-government slogans during a protest rally in front of government headquarters [EPA]
The European Commission, which has Romania's justice system under special monitoring, warned against backtracking.

"The fight against corruption needs to be advanced, not undone," Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, and his deputy, Frans Timmermans, said in a joint statement. "We are following the latest developments in Romania with great concern."

The embassies of Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States expressed deep concerns in a joint statement "over the government's actions ... which have undermined Romania's progress over the last ten years with the rule of law and the fight against corruption.

"This decree ... can only undermine Romania's reputation in the international community and risks affecting partnerships based on common values, inherent to the guiding principles of the EU and NATO," the statement said.

Romania's Social Democrats won back power in a December 2016 election a year after protesters drove them from office in an outpouring of anger over a deadly fire at a nightclub that lacked emergency exits and safety permits.

Many saw the fire as emblematic of widespread corruption and impunity, but after 12 months of technocrat government, the Social Democrats returned on a promise to hike wages and pensions and cut taxes.

Anti-corruption prosecutors are currently investigating more than 2,000 abuse-of-power cases. They indicted more than 1,000 over the past three years with damages worth up to 1bn euros.


People take part in a demonstration to protest against government plans to reform some criminal laws through emergency decree [EPA]
The decree would apply to ongoing investigations and trials as well as new cases and it specifies it will come into effect within ten days. Criminal negligence is also no longer an offence and the definition of conflict of interest has narrowed.

The government on Tuesday also approved a draft bill granting prison pardons that requires parliamentary approval.

"These provisions aim to exonerate all top and medium-ranking officials - parliament clerks, government members, all those able to approve laws, decrees, local decisions," chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi told television station DIGI24.

"Since last night, every day has become a major risk for the judicial system."

 

[WebGuru]

Millions gathered on streets of Bucharest to protest against newly formed Govt's controversial Bill, reduction in punishment for corruption.

 

[Madplayer]

How can this work? This will only make the exploitation more widespread and give it a legitimate colour.

This isnt the same as asking to legalize betting for instance.

 

[DW44]

Developing countries should never waste precious resources actively fighting the Hydra that is corruption. You cut off one head, two more will grow in its place.That doesn't mean they should make laws that legalize it but they absolutely should not be pouring money and manpower specifically into efforts to tackle corruption because any gains will be temporary.

This is a long term issue which can only be fixed through strengthening institutions which, in turn, is a product of economic development. Economic development is down to economic policies and given good enough policies, the prevalence of corruption won't hinder growth much.

 

[Swanny]

Developing countries should never waste precious resources actively fighting the Hydra that is corruption. You cut off one head, two more will grow in its place.That doesn't mean they should make laws that legalize it but they absolutely should not be pouring money and manpower specifically into efforts to tackle corruption because any gains will be temporary.

This is a long term issue which can only be fixed through strengthening institutions which, in turn, is a product of economic development. Economic development is down to economic policies and given good enough policies, the prevalence of corruption won't hinder growth much.

But prevalence of corruption does hamper growth

 

[DW44]

But prevalence of corruption does hamper growth

Which is why I said it won't hinder growth 'much'. My point is that you can achieve economic growth(and by extension, development) in a corrupt system so long as your policy framework is specifically designed to target that. It is infinitely harder, however, for a developing country to eliminate, or even reduce, corruption for any sustained period through targeted action and I can't think of any country that has done so. There's no miracle cure as populists in the third world suggest. It's a long and arduous process that requires a lot of patience.

China, spectacularly corrupt country even today, managed to achieve sustained double digit growth for nearly three decades despite being one of the most corrupt countries in the world(bar Africa maybe, that region is in a class of it's own). It did so not because it developed an equivalent to NAB which eliminated corruption and then their economy magically grew into a behemoth. They reformed their economic policy, reorienting the state's focus on export oriented manufacturing, welcoming foreign manufacturers to set up shop there while protecting local ones through various means at the same time which is what precipitated the economic boom that followed. Throughout all this, corruption has remained very high and although it has been on a downward trend, the decline has been painfully slow in stark contrast to the rapid economic growth.

Countries like Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa still rank higher than China and Turkey on the Corruption Perceptions Index, which admittedly is not a definitive guide and has it's limitations. Can anyone honestly say the same about these countries' economies? Nations don't remain underdeveloped because of corruption, they do so because of poor economic policies. Pakistan isn't poor because it's corrupt. It's poor because feudalism is alive and kicking in large swathes of the country's two most populous provinces and industrialization is a direct threat to the continued existence of such a system. Many Pakistani politicians have a feudal background so what kind of economic policies do you expect these people to make considering the obvious conflict of interest here, with industrialization a direct threat to their rent seeking ways. This is the same reason the economy tanks harder during PPP governments than PML ones since PPP is far more of a feudal party than PML whose first family has an industrial background.