If the Arab countries cannot find a solution to the Palestinian Cause, or if our poor countries are suffering from the lack of resources or excessive fertility among women, and if education is a project for generations to come and is still in an otherworldly realm, then there is a cause that if a solution is found to, this would help alleviate all the other calamities that I began with; in fact, the solution is quite possible, and where there's a will, there's a way. The issue I am talking about is corruption, which is something that I intend to go back to from time to time, while relying on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) issued by Transparency International. I argue here that the Arab counties that cannot reform their education system in the foreseeable future, can at least fight a war against corruption almost immediately, and will manage to eradicate it even before the publication of the CPI next year, near the end of 2010. There are two points that I want to mention before I continue: the first point is that the CPI is not tantamount to divine revelation, and thus must bear some mistakes. Nonetheless, it is overall correct. The second point is while corruption is rejected in all countries, it is more stomached in a rich country where the “pie” is big enough for every citizen to get a piece; however, it becomes a crime in a poor country where the pie being stolen barely exists. I compared between the CPI published recently and the CPI of last year, and found that the least corrupt Arab countries have maintained their ranks, while the most corrupt Arab countries remained on the bottom of the list. In fact, the last five countries were Iraq, ranking 176 shared with Sudan, followed by Myanmar, Afghanistan and Somalia which ranked last or 180. Thus, four of the last five countries are Muslim, while three are Arab countries. For this, I condemn the U.S occupation and hold it responsible equally with the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan for the flagrant ongoing corruption. Since I do not consider Somalia to be a standing state, I give the last two ranks on the CPI to two Muslims countries occupied by the Bush administration. Meanwhile, Iran is not far from the bottom of the list, having gone down a record fall from the 141st rank to the 168th this year, along with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, two Muslim countries as well. The best Arab rank on the CPI was achieved by Qatar, climbing from 28th last year to 22nd this year, right after Belgium, and before France and Spain and other European countries. Also, the United Arab Emirates rose from the 35th rank last year to the 30th this year. Perhaps the best thing about the Qatari and the Emirati achievement is that it placed two Arab countries ahead of Israel, which ranked 32nd this year, one rank higher than last year. Here, I insist that the index does not reflect the true nature of Israel, a country that is as corrupt as it is fascistic. In fact, Abu Ammar used to tell me how he had to give bribes to Israeli officials in order to secure the daily needs for the Palestinians. I hear the same thing from our brother Abu Mazen these days, and I know that the second mobile phone network in Palestine was postponed because the National Authority did not have sufficient funds to bribe the Israeli senior officials. Meanwhile, the Sultanate of Oman rose to the 39th rank from 41, while Bahrain rose to 46 from 43, and Jordan fell to the 49th rank from the 47th rank, in addition to Tunisia, which ranked 65th after having been ranked 62nd, while Kuwait almost remained almost in the same rank, after falling to the 66th rank from 65 last year. Furthermore, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rose noticeably in the CPI: after having ranked 80 last year, it rose to the 63rd rank this year. Meanwhile, Syria achieved the record improvement among the Arab countries, rising from 147 to 126, with the difference thus being 21 ranks. However, I hope to see an equal improvement next year, with Syria rising to the first half of the CPI. Therefore, the Saudi and Syrian achievements in one year only confirms my conclusions in the beginning, that fighting corruption is easier than liberating Palestine, or training teachers, and that the results for this will be seen within a year, and will definitely help the government solve the other problems. What spoiled my comparisons between the CPI this year and last year is that Lebanon fell from the 102nd rank last year to the 130th rank this year, a record decline of 28 ranks. It now ranks with Libya; however, the latter is an oil producing country which was last year in the 126th rank. The ranks of Lebanon and Libya both last year and this year are low, and condemn the governments of both countries. In the end, I congratulate Qatar and Saudi Arabia for their achievements, and demand more success of them next year while promising them, or even threatening them, that I will return to this subject with the publication of the CPI next year, in order to note down the ranks achieved by Arabs, either up or down. [email protected]
