Stoking The Fires of Corruption: An International Perspective

Over the past few months there has been several governments tainted with corruption on the international scene, and these revelations have come about as a result of investigative journalists becoming more daring and their quest to tell the story as it is, and not the usual distorted views. Several huge amounts of monies badly needed to build hospitals, health centers, provide portable and good drinking water etc etc have been siphoned by certain individuals within their respective governments into numerous offshore bank accounts, leaving the innocent and vulnerable citizens in deplorable conditions.

In South Africa, the President is alleged to have used the state’s money to renovate his private residence in his hometown, Nkandla. This has been debated several times in the South African Parliament several times with some MPs calling for him to step down, but surprisingly Jacob Zuma survived a vote of “no confidence” when the matter was put to the vote. He would have been impeached if the vote had gone contrary. South Africa is also facing a problem where the Guptas who are very influential when it comes to appointments by the government and the awarding of contracts. All these are traces of corrupt practices that is giving South Africa a bad image on the international scene.

In Brazil, the President, Dilma Roussef is facing a possible impeachment over allegations that she manipulated the government finances to prop up the government on a sound economic footing. Thus she did not tell her people the true and real nature of Brazil’s economy. Most of her coalition partners have already deserted her and she is now accusing them of being traitors. The outcome of the impeachment proceedings will be out for the whole world to see. She has denied all the allegations leveled against her and the government.

Then here comes the #PanamaPapers or #PanamaLeaks which has revealed the hiding of huge sums of monies by several past and present leaders, politicians and influential businessmen and women in tax havens in several countries managed by the law firm Mossack Fonseca. Cronies and friends of several leaders have also been cited in the leaks. My question is why will they hide their monies in tax havens while the ordinary citizens in their respective countries pay the taxes to develop the countries? Indeed, these revelations have really highlighted the issue of money laundering and the dirty money used by some governments, drug barons and other individuals to propagate their nefarious, frivolous, luxurious and opulent lifestyles. As with several leaks, this one too will go unpunished as several tax havens exist in the Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands, Macau etc etc. The fires of corruption has been really stoked for a long time and the international dimension that it has gotten to needs to be addressed otherwise the ordinary citizens will rise up one day and put an end to it.

Wikileaks or "Wickedleaks".

Ghana is a very interesting country with its population being accorded the title of providing the so called proverbial hospitality.  This means that we try as much as possible to make all foreigners feel very much at home in our beautiful country. This has gotten to a point whereby this accolade has been taken to another level by our leaders and politicians. The wikileaks expose has realy turned Ghana into a nation where the animal farm mentality has come to stay. Most of the politicians will defend or deny all aspects of the leaked cables if it goes against them and make sure they show the veracity of the leaked cables that goes against their opponents. That is two legs bad, four legs good. The media, both electronic and print were awash with the leaked cables puported to have come from the US Embassy citing both former government officials, opposition figures and other prominent people blabbering on sensitive issues to these American and foreign diplomats. What a shame this wikileaks cables have brought to my dear country Ghana. Politicians should watch how they talk to foreign diplomats on sensitive issues. Some have come out denying what has come out, but what surprised me was how these conversations were recorde verbatim with no changes done to them, i then ask myself, where lies the denials? It will be a good thing to come out and accept responsibility for making a staement than to deny it. What i have realised in Ghana is that our politicians and leaders talk too much. I sometimes wonder if there is no public relations outfit in our country. The reason why i see my country to be interesting is that, when an issue crops up, it can be on our airwaves for the whole week or even a month with each party trying to defend or deny it. I just dont understand how our politicians and leaders are able to talk on sensitive issues to foreign diplomats without being mindful of the future reppecurssions of such loose talk. To add insult to injury, the American Embassy will always decline to comment on the wikilieaks cables on Ghana, it will be a dipolmatic blunder to comment on the wikileaks cables. As usual,  the Americans will always go by their motto "In God We Trust", so why should they trust a fellow human being.