Dual corruption?
Extortion, entanglement, bribery, «protection» and all the other forms of corruption exist in two forms: that of the extortionist and that of the «victim.» Usually, we focus on the first – more active – form and tend to ignore the other, passive one. This is despite the fact that in many forms of corruption, such as entanglement, the passive role is a matter of crucial significance; namely that politicians and state officials agree to «facilitate» the efforts of certain businessmen and certain state-backed interests. And it is these «passive» players who corrupt and distort our economy, politics and democratic institutions. After all, how can you compete with a so-called businessman who has the regime and the state budget on his side? … Even our prime minister refers only to the active players in his official statements, concealing the passive – which is surprising especially when there are so many outstanding court cases against the latter… And so we reach the point where a distorted form of parasitical capitalism – which is not only unproductive but also crude and unjust – prevails. It was our democracy, however, which suffered the most as a result of corruption. We have had a democracy on paper since 1974, a real example for many countries. But the management of our democratic bodies by all political parties has been so poor that the entire body of our democracy has been disfigured by instances of blatant injustice, inequality and class repression.
