Does Power Corrupt?

Opinion

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee

Courtesy both traditional means of communication and social media we are swamped with news and information coming from all over the world, much of it rather depressing. We thus learn about corruption perpetrated by the high and mighty, by those who wield power, especially political power, though most times we forget that there is a corruptor and a corrupted.

Conventional wisdom holds that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Going against this grain, however, Osho also known as Rajneesh proposed, in his book ‘Power, Politics and Change,’ that ‘those who seek power are already corrupt,’ according to the blurb on the back cover of the book. ‘Once they attain their goal, their corruption simply has the opportunity to express itself. That’s why even those who seek power to bring about radical change so often fail, despite their best intentions.’

From the Hindu philosophical perspective human beings are born with three psycho-mental tendencies, namely sattva which is about goodness, purity, balance; rajas, which is about ambition, passion, activity; and tamas, which is about inertia, sloth, dark thoughts. Each individual has a variable mix of these three tendencies, usually with one predominating. 

Osho, an Indian thinker and philosopher (1930-1990) who promoted meditative practices and love instead of hate, had understood human nature in depth, and wielded global influence by his unorthodox thinking, which he propagated in discourses. These, along with his other books, make up a voluminous collection full of his insights which do give us, literally, food for much thought and provoke us at the very least to re-examine our staid positions.

Some of his views may appear to be quite extreme, as for example, ‘Politicians and criminals are not basically different people. Politicians are successful criminals. Criminals are unsuccessful politicians. Criminals are poor, pitiable. They had tried but failed. Politicians are of the same tribe, with only one difference: they have succeeded.’

However, nowadays there are innumerable examples of billionaire criminals in the world, perhaps they were less in number and not as ostentatious in Osho’s lifetime.

Accounts of criminal gangs – which are usually associated with thefts, hackings, sex-trafficking or drugs – that we come across detail the power that the barons wield over the people who make up their networks, such that they can only escape at the risk of death.

This may not be unknown in the political world either, where the deaths of potential rivals or those who otherwise come in the way can give rise to suspicion of foul-play commandeered from above.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the so-called free world has settled for a system of government known as representative democracy, where the people are called upon to vote candidates who stand for election in a bid to defend the interests of the electorate. That it is not an ideal system was stated by the British politician Winston Churchill, who was Britain’s prime minster during the Second World War. He had said that democracy is the least bad of systems of government.

Over the past few decades, we have seen how democracies deemed to be the foremost examples of this system have been undergoing crises that result from faultlines and positionings arising from differing ideological underpinnings, self-interest, pressures from corporates or lobbies which press their own agendas. In the UK nowadays, the prime example of parliamentary democracy, and some other European countries too such as Germany, appeasement politics is vitiating democracy.

The democracy model is supposed to promote good governance and economic growth, and overall prosperity. The overwhelming progress made by China has challenged this hallowed notion and is rattling the ‘west’, since it has been able to successfully combine market reforms post-Mao while retaining its communist mode of governing the country.

Given Osho’s vast and deep understanding of human nature and his wide experience of the world and the structures of power, together with the public spectacles that political regimes of all hues are rife with, it is not possible to altogether dismiss the observation of Osho about the similarities between politicians and criminals. And so much is heard too about the politicians-criminals nexus that we are bound to subscribe to the saying that ‘there can be no smoke without fire.’

To be fair, though uncommon, we do have some examples in history of politicians whose primary goal was to genuinely serve the interests of their people and develop their countries, empowering people and building the robust institutions needed for good governance, ensuring fairness and justice, recognizing merit. They were less or perhaps not at all prone to corruption by money power or the allure of glorification, focusing on the advancement of their people and their country.

In my view, we can with some justification say that this is the spirit that drove the trade-unionists and politicians who became engaged in the struggle to improve conditions of workers and eventually to obtain the independence of our country. They sought power more to achieve these public goals rather than line their pockets, so it seems in retrospect, compared to what has been happening subsequently, and that has given rise to the expression that politics is business by another means. That is, leveraging political power to make money by means fair or foul.

It is up to the political parties, old ones and those coming up, as well as the politicians, to prove their genuineness to the people. But the people too have their role to play for, so it is said too, we get the government we deserve.

I guess this sums it up, and perhaps Osho too would have agreed…

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 28 June 2024