I was shocked. And it takes quite a lot to shock me. A friend I had known for more than 20 years was suggesting something. This friend is one of the world’s decent people. And yet on this occasion he was suggesting that a certain amount of corruption is a good thing.
Excuse me if I don’t give you the full details of names, countries and facts, but as the story unfolds it will be obvious why.
The friend, Friend One, and another friend, Friend Two, were sitting around the table and at the question of coastal development came up. I mentioned that the Carr Government had decided to take control of all development approval within a kilometre of the NSW coastline. I extolled one of my pet theories that the smaller the level of government, the higher the level of corruption. We have seen coastal shire councils dismissed on the grounds of corruption and state government administrators appointed to run the show for a year or two before a new democratic (and susceptible-to-corruption) council could be put into place.
I developed the theory a little further suggesting that the closer land is to places of attraction the more corrupt process of planning will be. And so if one has a small level of government near the wonderfully attractive NSW, corruption is bound to be rife.
It was then that Friend One in all up seriousness said, “but sometimes there is nothing wrong with a little corruption.”
Even Friend Two – a real-estate agent – was shocked.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He then related a story of a dealing with the Australian bureaucracy which had infuriated him.
Friend One has frequently visited a particular Third World country. He has had dealings and business with people in that country. One such person has become a close friend as well as a business associate. The Third Worlder, being a Third Worlder, had little chance to see beyond his own Third World country. He had little chance to see the country from which many of his clients came from, namely Australia. So, Friend One thought it would be a good idea for him to invite the Third Worlder for a couple of weeks’ holiday in Australia. Being a generous and decent man, he arranged a return air fare and arranged an itinerary which included staying at his home in Canberra.
The Third Worlder submitted an application to get a tourist visa for the holiday.
To both their horror, the Australian embassy rejected the visa application. Such is the state of paranoia in the Department of Immigration they work from the premise that everyone in the world wants to be an illegal immigrant to Australia. Never mind that our Third Worlder had a family and business in the Third World country or that he was culturally tied to that country. Never mind that he had a return air fare. Never mind that he had a full itinerary and an Australian citizens who was prepared to be responsible for him. Never mind that a cursory check of the Australian citizen – my Friend One – would have revealed and man with a stable employment record bordering on the boring and with no criminal conviction beyond a parking fine.
As I said, Friend One is a decent and understanding man. He acknowledges the need for the Australian Government to have procedures that will prevent a flood of illegal immigration. But he is now faced with a long and expensive appeal process for what he thinks should be an open-and-shut case for the grant of a tourist visa. He is frustrated and feels almost helpless that he will have to go through this process. The sheer power and anonymity of government is daunting.
He mentioned, just for starters, the infuriating and time-consuming process of just telephoning a government department these days in order to get a human being on the other end of the phone to answer a few questions.
I immediately chimed in sympathy, having the previous day set the timer on my watch when phoning the ACT Revenue offers. It took fully 12 minutes to get a human being who still could not answer my question. (At least I have a headset phone and could listen to Vivaldi – why don’t they try some Mozart for a change? – at the same time culling the Letters to the Editor). Indeed, why I finally got a voice at the other end I had drifted off to the extent that I had to suppress a demand not to interrupt the music, imagining I was listening to a CD.
Anyway, it was at this stage of the conversation that Friend One said that a little corruption was a good thing.
“If I had been in [the Third World country] I could have just slipped the immigration officer $100 and got the visa. We would all have been saved a lot of effort.”
He warmed to his theme. “”Not only that, he said, “”The trickle-down effect actually works in some of these Third World countries. The bribe money trickles down at to families and the desperately poor. The corruption system is a damn sight more efficient than our bureaucracy.”
He (italic) was (end italic) being a serious. I have no doubt he will go through the proper channels, infuriating as it is.
It made me think, nonetheless. As governments get more remote, hiding behind push-button phones and cumbersome processes to get anything done, small wonder people will attempt to short-cut the system.
I think that in Australia we are in a hiatus in the processes that governments and other large organisations deal with citizens and customers. Governments and large organisations have a furiously downsized counter staff, branch offices, telephone inquiry staff and anyone else engaged in what is for them the expensive and time-consuming process of giving tailored information to individuals. They have tried to justify the downsizing because they say they have changed the way they do the function with other technology-rich methods – – the internet, push-button phones, and direct mail, for example. However, the latter have not adequately replaced the former.
It is a bit like the time that cars replaced horses and buggies. Or when supermarkets replaced the corner store.
Indeed, my mother – – another thoroughly decent and a reasonable person, like Friend One – – shocked me when that supermarkets took over corner stores.
“Small wonder people steal things,” she said. “all the goods are open for people to put in their bags and then they have to spend ages waiting for someone to come and take your payment. They are quite justified walking out of the store without paying,.”
Since then, supermarkets have dramatically improved their game.
But I don’t think governments and big corporations have. And if you alienate decent people to the extent that stealing and corruption look alike morally acceptable solutions, you know you’re in trouble.