The second world war saw the end of colonization of many a countries. However, most of these colonies, which then became large independent countries did not really know themselves the democratic way of society.
Almost one and all copy pasted the constitution of their colonial masters with a little change here and there. But the biggest irony was that almost all of them copy pasted the laws , which their masters had framed to enjoy rule over the colony.
The result was that soon after independence, the new formed bureaucracy now started enjoying powers ,which were earlier vested with the " White Skin " master. Not only that, it furthered itself to use these powers and the oppressive laws to now obstruct the natural flow of goods and services to its own people. It soon realized that the best position was to keep everything under suspension and use it for lining their own pockets. Corruption , which was unheard of during the colonial times, now became the normal way of life. Interestingly , it was all across the third world, systematic abuse of power took place and corruption then became a way of life. Today, it is the only way to get around most government offices across third world countries. It was such a shame on the Developed countries and the rest of the world that none of them vouched for UN sanctions against governments and politicians which oppressed and sucked its own people in the name of governance. The sanctions are only against countries, who are not willing to toe the line of western interest. But again sanctions have to mean arrest of corrupt politicians/ bureaucrats,de- recognizing the parliament of such countries and not debarring of trade and penalizing the already oppressed population.
The army in most of these countries believed that , it was the natural successor of the colonial rulers and was the rightful ruler of the nation. Hence could bypass a civic society and have budgets and benefits that would be envy of a king. Many of these nations were quickly overtaken by the dictators, whether it was Argentina or Chile or Libya or Uganda or Pakistan and you can count most of them. The army then systematically looted the nation of its own wealth. It was no ones business. Developed nations would continue doing business with these nations. Multinational companies enjoyed the situation, because all it required was the blessings of an army and they would monopolize the business. Most oil companies and mining companies were the biggest beneficiaries of this situation. The whole of middle east oil was largely in the hands of Western MNC. The mining in Africa was again in the hands of western MNC.
The remnants of an already sucked nation by their colonizers was now being sucked away by either the army or by the bureaucrats and politicians. The population of these nations, was still fighting illiteracy, diseases, poverty, lack of employment opportunities etc and for the corrupt , these were the very cause of opportunities for making their wealth. Each and every nation had its own heroes to glorify for their independence movement , but it was not long, before that these heroes were only an academic subject and the nations were taken over by its own corrupt politicians. Who saw that it was much easier to manipulate large mass of illiterates and capture votes and remain in power. The educated, intelligentsia was no different from the elimination it has seen in the Cultural Revolution in China. Only that , here, they were marginalized and not eliminated.
Retrospectively, one looks behind and only feels that if he has successfully managed his life out of all this messy situation, then it was already a great job. Not many were so lucky. It was always a struggle to survive. It was never more then hand to mouth for most of the population in these nations.
30 to 40 years after the second world war, the people in these nations were getting enlightened, were now better educated and some semblance of economic order had returned to these countries . The dictators and politicians got questioned. Only the other day, I was watching the Davos BBC debate and the world bank and politicians were taking pride on uplifting millions out of poverty in the last 20 years. Factually, it is this world bank and politicians, who are responsible for keeping the world under poverty for the first 40 years and to a great extent till date in most developing nations. It is only today , after 65 years that a nation like Egypt is celebrating the departure of yet another dictator.
When I talk to my western counterparts, they say, no wonder your countries were colonized, because you are anyway a bunch of tribals, who work and behave coherently only under a barrel of gun. And sometimes, I think , this is not too much wrong. How many of our nations actually return politicians who are worth governing their countries. Don't we return politicians ruling the tribals ?
In countries like S.Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, they successfully wiped out corruption and became some of the richest economies of the world. It was as easy as that, if actually the politicians wanted. All it takes is mass sacking of hundreds of officers in one single day and the next day, the whole country is free of corruption. But this needs a powerful , righteous and strong leader.
If India and China, today boost of growth, then it is very little to do with the governments there, but largely to do with the private sector and the middle class. Both these nations at least had invested heavily into education and the people in both these countries were very proud of their Tertiary qualifications. Which finally started resulting into Economic Output and Value Velocity, as soon as the capital got freely available. For China, it was easier, because when you start with a very low number, then growth numbers always look nicer. Say, growth from 100 to 200 is 100%, but growth of 10 million to 11 Million is only 10%. China had this numeral advantage. Both the nations are responsible for keeping their economies locked for 40 years and exploiting their own nation.
Did Japan and Europe not come our flattened from the second world. Was it not the open economies of these nations and the world bank/ Aid, which took them to such an enviable position today. Why is that Europe , Japan and US not turn to corruption. They were simple human beings like us. Perhaps, this shows that within human beings itself it is not everyone is equal. History and Sociology are reflections of how certain group of people from certain lands were always more progressive then the others, only on account of freedom and fair society. Only an open, fair, transparent and innovative society progresses. Whether it will live in peace and harmony is another debate. Others, will always fall in the hands of colonial/ political / corrupt masters.
The irony is that , everyone has moved to his comfort zone and does not care about the misgoverning anymore. Corruption of the order of million of dollars is considered a normal routine affair. Capitalism is now fully embedded in each society. The survival of the Richest is the new Darwin's Theory in the modern world.
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