TI survey merits serious attention

That we share an unsavoury label of being a country 'most plagued' by corruption with other South Asian countries is hardly a surprise. But when a survey by TI finds one in three South Asians saying they had to pay bribes for services they were legally entitled to, the extent of the menace is still jolting.
What's worse, the survey says Bangladesh is the most plagued by bribery with 66 percent of the people surveyed reporting that they bribed employees of public institutions. The statistics only validate what we know and face in our daily lives. Whether it is to restore a telephone line, file a general diary at the police station or get a genuine driving license -- everything requires some 'tea money' to someone or the other.
People, despite the punitive burden on their resources, have so far accepted it as being 'part of the system'. Successive governments, meanwhile, have not lifted a finger to remove this shameful stain on their governance, presumably because of the irresistible material gains accrued. Interestingly, there have been examples where corruption-free mechanisms have worked -- the efficiency of the machine-readable passport process being one of them. But without the political will to replicate this approach in all spheres, there will be little change in the infamous ranking we have earned.
But there are rumblings of protest in the South Asian region. Anna Hazare the relentless activist in India has given a direction to the general people that they must fight against state-corruption by joining hands. The survey has shown that more and more people are willing to participate in such campaigns.
In our own turf too, the people are getting increasingly disenchanted by the unbridled corruption that makes their lives so hellish. They have, moreover, no outlet, to lodge their complaints and get redress.
Thus if we are to hold even a slither of hope of eradicating this corrosive disease called corruption, the only way out seems to be a people's resistance against it.