COMMENT – Nowadays corruption is not only the focus of the print and electronic media, it is a topic on which nearly every Pakistani, rich or poor, educated or un-educated, has something to say and can and does speak ad nauseam – so rampant it is. Stories of corruption by sections of the military, judiciary, politicians, personnel of different state departments, abound and add to the despair and hopelessness of the situation.
Discussions on corruption usually begin with problems of law and order which are linked with issues of governance and invariably end up with expressions of the need for a strict ‘ruler'(always a single person akin to an autocrat) with a `danda` or stick who would reform society.
Before we analyse corruption and look for a solution for its elimination our concepts about corruption need to be very clear. The English word `corrupt`, an adjective, when used in the context of language or texts denotes errors, alterations or admixtures of foreignisms. It is used to describe a condition of CHANGE from a sound one to an unsound, spoiled, contaminated, rotten one, and for DETERIORATION from the normal or standard specific.
It also incorporates morality and is used for morally unsound, debased, perverted, evil, depraved practices and procedures. Taking bribes or similar dishonest dealings such as accepting money for doing something dishonest falls under corrupt practice.
The Reader’s Digest in its July edition of 2010 published the results of a global survey conducted in 16 countries around the world with one question; WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU FOUND SOMEONE’S WALLET?
It asked respondents how they would react if they found a wallet with $1000 in it. The first choice was `Return the wallet and the money`. Australia topped the list with 91 percent saying they`d return the money. One wonders what Pakistan`s position would have been had such a survey been conducted here.
Recently we witnessed a money related event which made us all proud. A poor hotel waiter in Gilgit-Baltistan, Issa Khan, returned the wallet of a Japanese tourist containing $50,000; Rs 4.2 million in Pakistani rupees, which is a good sum. Lowliest of the low, he had the opportunity of a lifetime to begin life anew with this money. But that’s not what he did. He returned the money to its owner!! Whoever returns found money? Why did he do so? Who are his role models, his heroes? Who or what inspired him? It turns out that Issa Khan is a man of character. And herein lies the hope.
Most parents and teachers would agree with me that our public education can play a role in correcting this situation. In order to move in the right direction educators need to keep not one but many steps ahead of their pupils in the realm of ethics, depth of human experience and skills that educators should nurture in their students. What the nation needs are `thinking’ teachers who encourage their students to ask questions, explore options, understand various perspectives, and make decisions based on sound grounds.
Before working out a viable policy for teaching moral education, educators need to consider the following questions: what type of character needs to be promoted? Which values\ rules are vital for the growing child to absorb and which for the later adult stage? Two types of people are considered as NOT HAVING CHARACTER, those at the mercy of passing whims and inclinations and others with no settled principles of their own. Do we desire someone who acts in accordance with a principle such as When in Rome do as the Romans do (for such a person would adapt himself to any company he keeps out of fear or need of approval) or a person who subscribes to some higher order principles such as impartiality and integrity.
Educators can work out which values\rules are basic and have to be passed on and promoted at an early age, such as the rule not to injure himself and others, and which ones at a later stage. What is more important is that though children in general know what is right and wrong, it must also be made clear to them why it is so. At a later stage in their education students must be made aware of the application of the values and rules, for values and rules do not dictate their own application.
The problem educators will face in this respect would be that of garnering content and formulating teaching that is effective without being indoctrinatory and authoritarian, which prepares the way for principled morality at the later adult stage. As parents and teachers increasingly fail to be appropriate models it is all the more important that education is directed towards the way things are going to be rather than the ways they were.
The writer is a veteran educationist based in Lahore
