Today’s Facebook generation, among the followers of Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption, would surely have heard of the Five Star Movement in Italy and its founder, Beppo Grillo, a comedian and a blogger.
The party was started in 2009, on the anti-corruption plank and in the land of Silvio Berlusconi, who has a vice-like grip on the press. Berlusconi, three times Prime Minister, is best remembered for his extravagant dances apart from financial shenanigans.
Among a dozen or so anti-corruption movements which have coalesced into political parties, worldwide, only the Five Star Movement of Beppo Grillo has had success in not only capturing some seats in provincial assemblies and mayorships but also in being at third place after People’s Freedom and Democratic parties, with a popularity rating of 20 per cent. It may wield considerable influence in the 2013 general elections in Italy.
The other example in this phenotype but with no record of success is the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption founded in 1997 in the Philippines, whose Imelda Marcos is known for her extravagant lifestyle.
It has not been able to get more than one seat even while Imelda Marcos is having no difficulty in getting elected to the house of representatives.
Morality and religion
The reason for poor results for anti-corruption movements elsewhere is that civil society morality, while not entirely absent everywhere, is fragile. In India too, like in the Christian world, religion is a factor as in our perception it is intertwined with morality. So, Baba Ramdev got traction in this movement as it appeared to give tacitly the stamp of religious approval for the anti-corruption movement.
However, it is evident that there is an inherent schism in the democratic political systems devised so far. On the one hand, it is casteist, parochial and clientelist with a strong tendency to stoke impulses to vote for someone who will manipulate the system for the benefit of individuals and constituencies. On the other, it demands of politicians to make lofty announcements to fulfil national aspirations and global commitments.
Despite known acts of corruption and pending criminal cases we see politicians get elected again and again, since they are able to connect with voters locally. Almost every Chief Minister charged with corruption has bounced back using the legitimate democratic electoral process, to the dismay of civil society.
Doomed from start?
World over, when regimes change democratically or otherwise, a key accusation is that the incumbent governments were corrupt to the core.
However, once the new dispensation is in place, its members, even if they are first-timers, exploit the same system, use the same means to amass personal wealth to be stashed in tax havens, build nexus with bankers and builders, and real-estate mafias under the pretext of rapid development or economic growth.
This process is brought out vividly by Fintan o’ Toole, a journalist, in his book Ship Of Fools while dealing with the Irish economic boom and bust during 2006-10.
Therefore, efforts to form political parties and fight corruption at the hustings may seem doomed at the start, going by precedents.
As of now, Team Anna plunging into electoral politics reminds one of Samuel Johnson’s remark to a friend who remarried after the death of a wife to whom he was unhappily married: ‘A triumph of hope over experience!’
(The author is former Member, Ordnance Factories)