Poverty, war, and corruption:Three epidemics in Yemen [Archives:2007/1069/Opinion]

With sincere regard and highest consideration to members whom Parliament selected a few days ago to form the National Anti-corruption Authority, talk about Yemen's taking a serious steps toward fighting corruption is still difficult.

To be clearer, the mechanism via which members of the Anti-corruption were selected gives no indicator about the government's being serious to fight corruption. This mechanism gave a tangible indicator that nothing of this will happen, and its indicator is that corruption in this poor country is still going on while the authority will be a new cover for more rampant corruption in the days to come.

Although some of the selected members are known to be honest and competent, they are not enough to take practical and effective steps in the war on corruption. Here, the problem is not in the fact that the majority of members selected for the Anti-corruption authority is notorious for exercising corruption, or are from the negative figures, who are not expected to play a good role in the process of fighting corruption. The real problem stems from the fact that the authority's role and the power delegated to it is less than what it actually needs. Some of the authority members don't feel ashamed to publicly defend corruption and corrupt officials. Also, they don't feel ashamed while fabricating faked battles to clear the country of corruption and make integrity prevalent in the government's offices.

Seriousness was eliminated from the meaning of forming the Anti-corruption Authority due the beforehand determination of the candidates, who won seats in the authority after instructions were given to the ruling party MPs constituting the majority in Parliament. The committee, concerned with receiving credentials of the applicants for Anti-corruption Authority seats, refused to present names of the candidates to a transparenct evaluation process involving all the political activities and public opinion means. The committee justified its behavior by formal procedures, represented by the merit certificates, which candidates obtained from their worksites. These worksites experience rampant corruption or are at least accused of exercising corruption while the conferred certificates don't help even prove the innocence of anyone.

Corruption is the major problem facing Yemen and it is the cornerstone that helps exacerbate other issues. We shouldn't forget that corruption in Yemen is not a moral deviation exercised in privacy and outside the government institutions. Instead, corruption has turned to be an effective policy and a philosophy in which the regime has faith and adhere to it. It is one of the mechanisms adopted by the regime, and through it the regime ensures its continued dominance and stay in power. The saying of the former Primer Minister and the current Secretary-General of the ruling part that “Corruption is the Salt of Development”” is a condensed summary of what happens in real-life situation.

Any way