“ROLE OF THE YOUTH IN COMBATING CORRUPTION”

“The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.” Kurt Cobain

Corruption is the main cause of nuisance around the world. By definition, corruption is misusing of the

power for personal or private gain (Transparency International). Corruption stands for impairment of

integrity, virtue or moral principle or inducement of wrong by bribery or other unlawful means. By every

definition, corruption means the violations of the country laws, social and ethical norms. In short, it is

the curse, which weakens the roots of a nation.

The greatest wealth and strength of any nation is its youth. The future of a nation lies in the hands of its

posterity. Benjamin Disraeli said, “The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.” It is only due to

courage, determination, and spirit of youth that a nation prospers and progress. Youth can play an

important role in eradicating corruption, as they constitute more than half of the human population so

there power is immense only if they realize it.

Corruption is one of the massive problems confronting Pakistan. It has badly affected the state of

economy, quality of standard and social justice available to the people. Corruption has eaten up the

innocence of people belonging to all walks, sections and classes in the country. According to

Transparency International world corruption report, 2011 Pakistan stands 42nd in ranking amongst the

most corrupt nations in the world. Since its inception, Pakistan undergoes political instability due to

corrupt leadership and dishonest politician. It was due to the agility of leaders, the romantic idealism of

its youth and the diversity of its agro-climate conditions to defeat all odds. Today we need that kind of

spirit in our youth to combat corruption in the country.

The youth of any nation are its potential energy. They are the ones who are the pride of the nation.

Unless tapped in the right way, this very energy of the youth can tip over the other side and become

destructive and dangerous for the society. Youth is highly affected due to corruption; they are

discouraged due to inequality and immorality in the society, non-availability of opportunities,

breakdown of family values, unemployment, poor or inadequate education, so first they become victim

of corruption and eventually become the corrupt. In order to remove all these malpractices and ill deeds

from the society youth should raise voice against corruption.

Fortunately, the solutions to all the problems sketched out above are well known, i.e. transparency,

openness accountability, selection on merit, privatization, quality education, and enforcement of the

rule of law. However, how youth can play its role in combating corruption is worth mentioning.

The process of corruption eradication requires many small steps starting right from the home to country

leaders. Everywhere in the world, almost all houses have one or two children. They are aware of their

family activities, if they found anyone deviating from the transparent path; they can correct them

through love and affection. Youngsters can also boycott with the children whose family is corrupt so that

they tell their parents about this and try to convince them not to do corruption. In simple terms, things

should be done in such a way, so that every non-corrupt person should play its role in eliminating

corruption.

Furthermore, lack of accountability promotes corruption rampantly. Every person is accountable in

his/her capacity towards society as well as environment. Youth can start an awareness campaign around

the country in telling people about their rights and responsibilities especially political rights because

there is a misconception among people that there is only one duty on them i.e. voting, which is also not

performed by majority of the people at times. They must be aware of their political rights, such as the

freedom to vote and run for office, and civil liberties, such as the freedom of speech and forming groups.

One practical example of this youth participation is youth parliament in Pakistan and some other

countries. Similar steps should be taken in this direction.

Youth should actively participate in advocating anti-corruption policies, influencing others to come

forward and monitoring government actions. Youth can use public places to communicate an anti-

corruption message and organize competitions for cartoons, poems, essays, and drama that

communicate an anti-corruption message also making demonstrations to schools, clubs, anti-corruption

organizations, human rights organizations and women’s organizations.

The biggest obstacle in nation’s development is political instability. So-called leaders and opportunists

joined hands with the civil-military bureaucracy to retain powers and loot the country resources with

both hands. Youth can combat corruption by taking competition exams and serve the nation as an

honest civil servant. Selection of an honest and committed leader is one of the difficult tasks. Youth can

start a website or publish documents where good and bad traits and background (or profile) of every

political leader should be mentioned against checklist of ideal qualities.

Youngsters should carry out research in key public institutions and sort out loopholes in the procedures

and causes of poor performance. In addition, the private institutions can be included in the research

study to get a comparative performance analysis of both types of institutions. This research report

should be published and presented in media.

They should contact key people like journalists, spokesperson, community leaders, academics,

international institutions, and NGOs about a problem in order to make such a situation public or push

for a resolution. By incorporating all above steps in action, it is believed that youth can bring out a

positive change around the world. It is the time to focus constructively on using the power of the youth

for the betterment of the nation and framing such policies which aim at empowering our youth so that

we can be assured of a better and brighter future.