http://dailythepatriot.com/panama-leaks-reveal-of-flaws-in-governance-structure/
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”
The maxim explains Pakistani politics of last decade more than any
situation of Elizabethan times as the Pakistani political landscape,
marred by internal political strife and numerous surfacing scandals, is
constantly drifting to uncertainty in its viability as a sustainable
system. The latest and strongest of all the jolts to the system are
Panama Leaks that have challenged legitimacy of many ruling houses in
Pakistan. Nonetheless, no matter what happens to the fate of ruling
Nawaz family, one of the main questions behind the biggest leak of
private documents seen on the Internet is whether we should care at all
about the existence of a global web of corruption, and whether something
will be done about it. The answer is positive on both counts. In a
world of extreme inequality and massive social problems such as ours,
the economic, social, and political effects of tax avoidance due to the
existence of tax havens are enormous. Without taxes, societies will
struggle to function as they will be unable to provide essential public
services. But while workers and small-to-medium-sized businesses are
paying the full tax rate, global corporations and the super-rich have
been paying fewer and fewer taxes over the years with the concomitant
growth of the world economy and the spread of offshore tax havens.
Welcome to global capitalism, tax injustice, and the undermining of
democracy. The involvement of influential names in the leak, such as
that of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the sitting presidents of
Argentina and Ukraine, and the prime minister of Iceland and Pakistan,
to name just a few of world leaders implicated in the Mossack Fonseca
scandal, will undoubtedly produce global political shocks and may lead,
one hopes, to a global spring on global governance.
The Panama Papers leak reveals that offshore companies such as
Mossack Fonseca need to come under very close scrutiny as they are not
illegal in themselves but aim to conceal the identity of the true
company and fund owners. They prove beyond doubt that corruption and
massive tax avoidance are pervasive throughout the world, not confined
merely to lands where only authoritarian and oppressive regimes exist.
The important aspect the Panama Papers leak reveals that, it is not just
the global tax system that is broken, but global governance itself.
Panama Papers’ leakage have opened up a new debate about ethics of
governance as the papers carry information about how specific class is
manipulating our governance system for not paying taxes and transferring
the ill-gotten money through parallel banking systems to various tax
heavens and later on layering of the same money through off shore
companies in buying expansive properties across the globe. The process,
on one hand is widening the economic divide within a society as the
non-tax payer rich getting richer at the expanse of the poor who pays
his taxes but is deprived of his share of social guarantees in return.
Unfortunately, being part of the ruling elite or getting knotted to the
power corridors, this affluent class is not answerable or accountable to
anyone. These documents have resurrected classic concepts of
philosophers like Plato, Joseph Ellul, Thomas Dye and Aristotle about
ethics of governance and formation of a just society.
Conferring to Aristotle, dynamics of governance are the concepts of
oligarchy (egalitarianism and tyranny) and aristocracy (polity). In
today’s political structure Oligarchies are one presiding in the
governance system; it’s a group of well-heeled people, landlord,
businessman, royalty or powerful military persons, ruling for their own
personal gains. Politicians are ethically certain to take decision for
the people they represent and their decisions are bound to result into a
tangible outcome in the form of betterment of their people. But Panama
Papers reveal breach of this trust between ruled and the ruler, as the
latter is found manipulating and designing the system to allow riches to
avoid taxes. This process of personal gains results in change of
important pillars of governance (constitution, legislation). Through
circumstantial breakdown of this subject, it gives us proper insight of
flaws in our ruling authorities and our power structure.
In Panama leaks, the prominent names of Pakistan’ business community
and politicians are included. These are people who belong to specific
ruling class in Pakistan and are representative of majority of
Pakistan’s population living below the poverty line. This difference in
ruling class and general public is so high that it actually gives them
space to rule according to their needs. Panama papers are portraying the
flaws in power dynamics of Pakistani society at certain levels. In
contrast, when we question why Americans’ have no single name in panama
paper? The simple answer is that in US executives there is proper
scrutiny of those who are part of governance. Discerning the American
governance structure is somewhat portraying the optimistic side of
America. US governing bodies elect the participant on defined facets and
even on presidential level respective person is accountable for his
assets during his retro of stay. Proponents of American of political
structure have to show their assets, sources, at every step they are
examined by proper firms system. In Pakistan the case is opposite, here
business class is the ruling one though there isn’t issue with which
class is governing but concern is they have to work in interest of
general public and not for their personal gains. Here there is not
comparison of US and Pakistani governance system its simple a process of
check and balance that is in applied form and visible in US but not in
Pakistan.
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