Inter Press Service (IPS)
BANGKOK, Jun 16 (IPS) - Cambodian lawmakers are still to offer unanimous support for a petition aimed at combating corruption that was presented to the National Assembly in mid-May. The call was a cry from ordinary people -- over a million of them.
Leading this grassroots movement was a coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs) that have been fighting graft that plagues every level of this Southeast Asian nation. By May, the activists had gotten some 1.1 million signatures out of a population of 14.2 million to support a drive to bring local anti-corruption laws on par with international standards.
There was a lot of awareness raised, with many public meetings during the signature campaign, which ran from Nov. until Apr. 2008, says Aaron Bornstein, head of the Cambodia office of the Mainstreaming Anti-Corruption for Equity (MAE) Project, which is funded by the development arm of the U.S. government. "The campaign was conducted in 19 out of the country's 20 provinces. There was urban and rural support."
"The coalition is intent on getting all political parties in the country to commit to supporting the petition before the end of the calendar year," Bornstein said during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. "This revealed greater public awareness that even ordinary people can play a role in battling corruption. Supporters of the petition were saying, 'enough is enough'."
As a new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) confirms, Cambodia's groundswell of anger against corruption at the grassroots level is also evident in other corners of Asia, where people are forced to pay bribes to get basic services such as health care, education, water, and sanitation -- in addition to bribing the police and members of the judiciary.
Like in Cambodia, sections of the public have mounted innovative efforts to take on those who are abusing power. In Nepal, an anti-corruption CSO has tapped the power of community radio to "encourage anti-corruption activities," states the UNDP report, "Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives - Accelerating Human Development in Asia and the Pacific."
In the Philippines, "roadwatching" has become an anti-graft activity, where adults and schoolchildren have learned "valuable lessons about citizens power and good governance" by paying attention to road construction, adds the 233-page report. "[This group] monitors road-building -- examining the original plans, then sending young people out into the field to discover what, if anything, was actually built, and if so, how well it was constructed."
"People across the Asia-Pacific region are becoming increasingly concerned about corruption, and governments are starting to react," notes the report, the first of its kind published by the UN agency. Hauling the rich and powerful before the courts may grab the headlines, but the poor will benefit more from efforts to eliminate corruption that plagues their everyday lives.
That message, in fact, was driven home by Transparency International (TI), a global anti-graft watchdog, last year. "The poor, whether in developing or highly industrialized countries, are the most penalized by corruption," revealed TI's "Global Corruption Barometer 2007." "About one in 10 people around the world had to pay a bribe in the past year; reported bribery has increased in some regions, such as Asia-Pacific and Southeast Europe."
"Corruption affects the poor most in this region; it is they who suffer because they cannot afford to pay the bribes since it eats up a large portion of their small incomes," Ramesh Gampath, co-author of the UNDP report, told IPS from Jakarta, where the publication was launched. "They have to pay bribes for services that should be their right, like health, education, water, and sanitation."
The rampant scale of corruption across Asia and the Pacific -- identified by some studies as the most corrupt region in the world -- could undermine the targets set for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The latter are eight targets that government leaders have pledged to meet by 2015, including halving poverty and extreme hunger, securing primary education for all children, and reducing child mortality.
"If there is rampant corruption, the MDGs will be compromised," says Gampath.
"Corruption can occur within health services at all levels -- from grand corruption, as funds are siphoned off during the construction of new hospitals or health centers, to petty corruption as health workers demand bribes to perform their routine duties," the report reveals. "Some cross-national studies have suggested that in countries where levels of corruption are higher immunization rates are lower and levels of child mortality are higher."
Corruption in education has its own unique features besides the obvious, such as corrupt officials siphoning off funds for school buildings, "which can increase costs between two and eight times." In many countries, the report notes, "there are irregularities in the hiring of teachers, which, in the most extreme form, results in the recruitment of 'ghost teachers' or even in the creating of entire 'ghost institutions' -- with allocated salaries and other expenses channeled into the pockets of officials."
Curbing abuse through greater local community activity has produced some results in Indonesia -- notorious for being among the most corrupt countries in Asia. "There has been a shift in public perception since 2004, where people perceive that they have a role to play in fighting corruption," says Rezki Sri Wibowo, deputy secretary-general of TI's Indonesia chapter. "A strong anti-corruption [effort] has emerged in Aceh to monitor reconstruction after the tsunami [in December 2004]....Civil society groups and the public are monitoring the procurement process much more now than before," he added during a telephone interview from Jakarta. "The government's decision to revitalize the national counter-corruption commission has also helped."
Leading this grassroots movement was a coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs) that have been fighting graft that plagues every level of this Southeast Asian nation. By May, the activists had gotten some 1.1 million signatures out of a population of 14.2 million to support a drive to bring local anti-corruption laws on par with international standards.
There was a lot of awareness raised, with many public meetings during the signature campaign, which ran from Nov. until Apr. 2008, says Aaron Bornstein, head of the Cambodia office of the Mainstreaming Anti-Corruption for Equity (MAE) Project, which is funded by the development arm of the U.S. government. "The campaign was conducted in 19 out of the country's 20 provinces. There was urban and rural support."
"The coalition is intent on getting all political parties in the country to commit to supporting the petition before the end of the calendar year," Bornstein said during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. "This revealed greater public awareness that even ordinary people can play a role in battling corruption. Supporters of the petition were saying, 'enough is enough'."
As a new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) confirms, Cambodia's groundswell of anger against corruption at the grassroots level is also evident in other corners of Asia, where people are forced to pay bribes to get basic services such as health care, education, water, and sanitation -- in addition to bribing the police and members of the judiciary.
Like in Cambodia, sections of the public have mounted innovative efforts to take on those who are abusing power. In Nepal, an anti-corruption CSO has tapped the power of community radio to "encourage anti-corruption activities," states the UNDP report, "Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives - Accelerating Human Development in Asia and the Pacific."
In the Philippines, "roadwatching" has become an anti-graft activity, where adults and schoolchildren have learned "valuable lessons about citizens power and good governance" by paying attention to road construction, adds the 233-page report. "[This group] monitors road-building -- examining the original plans, then sending young people out into the field to discover what, if anything, was actually built, and if so, how well it was constructed."
"People across the Asia-Pacific region are becoming increasingly concerned about corruption, and governments are starting to react," notes the report, the first of its kind published by the UN agency. Hauling the rich and powerful before the courts may grab the headlines, but the poor will benefit more from efforts to eliminate corruption that plagues their everyday lives.
That message, in fact, was driven home by Transparency International (TI), a global anti-graft watchdog, last year. "The poor, whether in developing or highly industrialized countries, are the most penalized by corruption," revealed TI's "Global Corruption Barometer 2007." "About one in 10 people around the world had to pay a bribe in the past year; reported bribery has increased in some regions, such as Asia-Pacific and Southeast Europe."
"Corruption affects the poor most in this region; it is they who suffer because they cannot afford to pay the bribes since it eats up a large portion of their small incomes," Ramesh Gampath, co-author of the UNDP report, told IPS from Jakarta, where the publication was launched. "They have to pay bribes for services that should be their right, like health, education, water, and sanitation."
The rampant scale of corruption across Asia and the Pacific -- identified by some studies as the most corrupt region in the world -- could undermine the targets set for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The latter are eight targets that government leaders have pledged to meet by 2015, including halving poverty and extreme hunger, securing primary education for all children, and reducing child mortality.
"If there is rampant corruption, the MDGs will be compromised," says Gampath.
"Corruption can occur within health services at all levels -- from grand corruption, as funds are siphoned off during the construction of new hospitals or health centers, to petty corruption as health workers demand bribes to perform their routine duties," the report reveals. "Some cross-national studies have suggested that in countries where levels of corruption are higher immunization rates are lower and levels of child mortality are higher."
Corruption in education has its own unique features besides the obvious, such as corrupt officials siphoning off funds for school buildings, "which can increase costs between two and eight times." In many countries, the report notes, "there are irregularities in the hiring of teachers, which, in the most extreme form, results in the recruitment of 'ghost teachers' or even in the creating of entire 'ghost institutions' -- with allocated salaries and other expenses channeled into the pockets of officials."
Curbing abuse through greater local community activity has produced some results in Indonesia -- notorious for being among the most corrupt countries in Asia. "There has been a shift in public perception since 2004, where people perceive that they have a role to play in fighting corruption," says Rezki Sri Wibowo, deputy secretary-general of TI's Indonesia chapter. "A strong anti-corruption [effort] has emerged in Aceh to monitor reconstruction after the tsunami [in December 2004]....Civil society groups and the public are monitoring the procurement process much more now than before," he added during a telephone interview from Jakarta. "The government's decision to revitalize the national counter-corruption commission has also helped."
