Politicians and Corruption

      Pericles, the founder of Greek democracy, was warned by his teacher, Zeno of Elea, that " politicians are not born, they are excreted". He did not want his best and brightest student to enter politics, but Pericles chose to do so.

      Politics is from the Greek "polis" and means a community. Democracy is from the Greek "demos" and "kratos" and means rule of the people. In his Politics, Aristotle, described man as a political animal who reaches his full potential when he co-operates and unites with his fellow man in a political community of laws. "Law", he stated," is reason unaffected by desire". Appetites and desires must be controlled by reason. As such Aristotle felt that the people cannot govern themselves, being driven by appetites and desires. He felt that an enlightened monarchy/kingship, based on laws that will be impartially applied was necessary. " Only a God or a beast can live outside of the polis", he wrote.( Man needs to live in a community with his fellow man. Only those who have property can be citizens, and they make the laws. Those without property and women and slaves were not allowed to participate in government). This idea was to have a great influence in governlng. The British gave the vote to all adult males in 1884. New Zealand was the first to give women voting rights in1892. In the United States, Britain and Canada, women got the right to vote after W.W.1. Switzerland gave women the vote only in 1972 and recently Kuwait gave rights to women. Many countries, like Saudi Arabia continue to deny women this right. African- Americans only got full voting rights after the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. At the Philadelphia in 1787, it was established in the American Constitution, that "blacks" were to be counted as 3/5 of a "white" man, "for purpose of taxation and representation". Now an African-American Barak Obama, sits as President, and his closest challenger was a woman, Hillary Clinton, now his Sect. of State, one of his most trusted and senior advisers.

      Representative democracy has become the order of the day. People vote their choices in supposedly free, fair and regular elections. These representatives not only make the laws, but must respect and uphold them, and see to it that they are applied impartially, by an independent judiciary. Too often however, this is not the case. The law is not respected, the application is not impartial and the outcome is corruption. Too many have given in to "appetites and desires" and greed and nepotism. The former president of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun, recently committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, over corruption charges. The outgoing Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert is under investigation for corruption and the present Prime Minister Netanyahu had been subjected to charges of corruption in his previous stint as Prime Minister. The former Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney is under investigation for receiving payments from an arms dealer. The present Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi is again under investigation and ministers and members of the British Parliament are accused of tax fraud. In India many members of parliament are accused of corruption and the recently elected President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma has been accused of rape (he was found not guilty) and of corruption. The President of Guatemala stands accused of the murder of an opponent and the former president of Peru, Fujimori is convicted of various crimes. These are all   democratically elected officials, in democracies. The non-democracies and the pseudo-democracies have no barriers to corruption, so it is the order of the day and corruption runs rampant down their streets and in the palaces. There are many others in many other governments, national, state/provincial and local that have been accused, investigated and punished, but there are many more who have yet to be subjected to the law. 

 Is it the corrupting influence of power or is it a character flaw? It is a character flaw that allows them to use their power in this sullied way. It is a character flaw that makes them think that they are above the law. It is a character flaw that allows power to seduce them into thinking that they can get away with it. The law may be slow but eventually it catches up with them. Laws, as Hobbes noted, are indeed like hedges, not to keep you out, but to keep you on the right path. When you stray from the path, the law will be waiting. The cynics will say that the law is toothless, that the law favours the rich and powerful, that the law is merely an inconvenience. They are wrong.