(THE VISION 2050 CRITICISM 4: GOOD GOVERNANCE)
Sixty-three days after China announced COVID-19 (07/01/2020), on 10 March the first case in Mongolia was confirmed. As of today, in 120 countries of the world, 120,000 people got infected (80,000 in China), 4300 died and 67,000 recovered. Mongolia has closed its air and motorway between the cities, aimags and soums since the date the first case was confirmed and, suspended all international flights. About 500 people, including the passengers who arrived on March 2 by plane from Moscow and service workers with the French citizen who was infected COVID-19, are being searched, separated and tested for the virus. Foreign media has begun speculating that by the end of April a vaccine for Coronavirus would be found and its spread could effectively be. As with the 2003 SARS plague, Coronavirus is sure to be defeated- it is only a matter of time.
However when would we be able to overpower the corrupt-virus infested the Mongolian government? U.Khurelsukh’s government stated that this will be the case in 30 years. According to the Vision 2050, page 249, Mongolia will by then become a state free of corruption. Nevertheless, will we endure that much corruption until then?
Good governance
The advice that international development organizations, especially the World Bank, give to developing countries such as ours over the past 30 years, is that good governance is the key to national development. Good governance will be achieved if the decision-making process of the state and its implementation are open, transparent and accountable. The World Bank measures health of the governance of the countries by the following indicators:
- the citizen‘s voice and accountability
- political stability and absence of terrorism and violence
- the government effectiveness
- the regulatory quality
- the rule of law
- control of corruption
Now, how well is Mongolia performing?
Fig. 1 Mongolia by global governance indicatorsSource: The World Bank
In Mongolia, between 2003 and 2018, citizen’s voice and accountability were moderate and remained virtually unchanged, politics remained relatively stable, the regulatory qualitystrengthened, while the rule of law and the government effectiveness deteriorated, and control of corruption weakened.
Thus, in the next 30 years, in order to develop a good governance “a non-corrupted society that promotes human rights; with an electronic, intelligent structure, competent and ethical public service will be built”.
Table 1: The projected levels of a Good governance
Source: The Vision 2050
But is there a specification as how to reach these high results? Aside from making decisions and implementing them, the state’s, “ability to provide public services to every individual is crucial” according to political scientist Francis Fukuyama. This ability of the Mongolian state remains poor and immunity is weak.
Governance virus
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that are massively present in organisms and help to digest and protect from other bacteria and microbes. A person falls ill when these bacteria are defeated by an infected bacterium. Bacterial infections are cured with antibiotics. The virus is much smaller than the bacterium, penetrating the human cell first, and then destroying healthy parts through reproduction. It is only defeated with the special vaccine. The vaccine has two functions: to prevent the virus from entering the cell; to stop the virus from multiplying in the cell.
Similar to bacteria, greed is given by nature in humans. When overgrown, it can quell relatively easily. And corruption, similar to viruses, invisibly attacks the body of government. It first penetrates the state, proliferates, and then destroys healthy cells.
In young democracies, corruption like a virus penetrates the politics through the democratic elections, using the power of the political party, reinforcing with money, and serves a financing partner/client and oligarch. In political terms, it is often referred to as clientelism or a trade for political power. Party-appointed officials enter the civil service before the next election, capitalize on, crave, and destroy healthy cells. To use the power of the civil service in this way is to be rent-seeking, in political terms. Since these two – clientelism and rent-seeking– are located in and originate from different places, their diagnosis and cure cannot be found within the same concept of good governance. Sadly, we Mongolians have only been talking about good governance and thus, all efforts to fight corruption did not yield results.
Clientelism is a deal to get power with an election. A prime example is the “60 Billion” case, or the initiative to buy votes through efforts of freeing the students of student debt or elders of their retirement debts. The basic tenets of clientelism are: “Help me and my party to win the election, and when I gain power, I will help you”. That is why the politics of clientelism cannot be eliminated by the current politicians. Transparency and openness are not solutions. The only solution is the participation and struggle of citizens. Clientelist politics is not to be changed, it is to be replaced only.
Rent-seekers are parasites, who exploit their civil service authority through means of special permits, licenses and tenders. Using their political power, they orchestrate a shortage of supply, then make revenue from this environment. The examples include the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprise Fund) case and many more funds, the State Bank and state-owned companies. Nevertheless, such cases can be solved through openness, transparency and accountability. The reason of the SMEs’ disclosure was the transition to transparency of the registration system. Despite becoming dim, the so called “glass account” (transparency of registries) is also another solution. In the future, the outcome depends on how “glass account” relating to all licenses, permits, bids, and concessions works and whether it can store the data with blockchain.
These attacks of the corruption and virus will not be altered by Mongolians with the help of international organizations, or by the lectures of foreign scientists. The only solution is for the Mongolians to be active and conscientious in their election, to fully replace their clientele members and to speak out against them whenever they can.
2020.03.12
Trans. by Riya.T and Sungerel.U