Corruption

Everyone knows that Yemen is riddled with corruption. It isn’t alone, most countries in it’s condition have the same problem. The parliament is in the process of convening a panel (30 people strong) to combat corruption. Everyone is pretty cynical about it, after all, the people in parliament aren’t exactly innocent bystanders. I have a little hope though, one of the panel’s main goals is to get rid of so called legal corruption. Apparently there are a variety of posts and laws that have at their basis the idea that someone in the government will take money from people and put it in their pocket. As you might imagine, the people that have these posts and take advantage of these laws are going to fight any attempt to get rid of their privilege. One guy who was supposed to be in charge of anti corruption efforts was removed after he let it be known that government posts should not be things to be handed down to sons. A bunch of sheiks objected and had him removed from office.

Several people have asked me what I thought Yemen needed to do to get out of poverty. Well, it’s no secret that the countries that engage in free trade, allow foreign capital to come in, and have as little a government footprint (as a percentage of GDP) do the best. Of course implementing those things straight away here would be a disaster. The corruption is just too deep. This is similar to Russia’s problems… Economists refer to the government’s protection of private property (and other rights) and it’s ability to police itself as “The rule of Law.” I heard on another podcast that free trade and commerce assumes a respect for justice. That’s true, but it also goes the other way, you can’t have free trade without justice. How to get to that point is a troubling problem. I think that a free press would help, but many here do not support the idea of a free press. They feel that incidents like the Mohammed cartoons “prove” that the press can’t be totally free. Hmm, maybe that’s the answer, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the culture here was a power (and hence corruption) enabler and a freedom hater. What kind of legislation can change a culture? None, parliament will find that it can’t fight this problem with laws, something else has to change, but I don’t know what.

Isaac

yemen middle east economics corruption