DailyMirror- Opinion:
One day, more than ten years ago, I saw three blind men assaulting a man outside the Fort Railway Station. They were screaming at the victim. Apparently the three men were lottery sellers retailing dreams at the station. The ‘victim’ had robbed one of them. The robbed had recognised the robber, several months later, by his footsteps, or so we were told. The ‘victim’, silently took the mauling. The robbed were trying to gouge his eyes out. The police intervened; bundled them all into a vehicle and took them away.
Petty theft. Petty assault. Not the first. Not the last. And not the only type of crime. There’s pickpocketing. Pimping. Prostitution. Verbal abuse. Physical abuse. Character assassination. Small crimes, yes, but petty, not for victim but when viewed against the canvass of major crimes. There are down-and-dirty crimes. Hands-get-dirty crimes. And then there’s clean crime. Sanitized crime. Loophole-knowing crime. Politically-protected crime. Ladies-and-Gentlemen crime.
White-Collar Crime. That’s Allowed-Crime. It is the kind of crime that you will not associate with people who have ‘names’ like Malu Nihal, Baddegane Sanjeewa, Kuru Noor, Kristoper (of Kelaniya University fame), Bada Mahinda etc. It is more likely that they will have aristocratic-sounding names and are propertied to the maximum. Much of it happens under the radar of the law, naturally. If, as Lenin said, the law is the will of the ruling class, then the political reality is that the ruling class will if necessary bend its own laws to protect itself or at least its champions.
White-collar crime refers, technically, to theft, fraud, embezzlement or some other non-violent lawbreaking act perpetrated by a salaried employee or senior manager of a company or organization. There’s no eye-gouging or Tyson-like ear-chewing. Clean-cut. That’s the signature of such crimes. The term, which has no legal significance, was first popularized by the American criminologist Edwin H. Sutherland in his classic paper “White-Collar Criminality” (1940), I learned. He pointed out that there’s a ‘significant sociological difference between conventional crimes such as burglary and murder, which are defined without reference to the social status or occupation of the perpetrator, and white-collar crimes such as fraud, embezzlement, price-fixing, antitrust violations, income-tax evasion, misuse of public funds, and abuse of political and legal powers’.
He adds, ‘in general, the latter are committed by persons of relatively high social status, are intimately connected with the socially approved occupation of the perpetrator, and are treated by the authorities more leniently and inconsistently than are conventional crimes.’ The crimes, then, are clean-handed and so too the (rare) punishment, typically nothing more than loss of professional licence (where applicable) or levying of fines. There is of course some fallout by way of loss of face, but that’s not something a court can order and anyway, we all know, popularity can dip and swing back, especially if enough bucks are thrown into it. The film ‘God Father III’ showed how it is done and anyway, if we look around, we will see enough examples of those who recovered face or rather, purchased face back, after getting ‘sooted’ in public. Most importantly, white-collar criminals, for the most part get away without having to serve jail-terms.
There have been scandals. Why ‘scandal’? Is that a word used for ladies-gentlemen-crime? Pickpocketing is not ‘scandal’, embezzlement is. It’s about status isn’t it? Anyway, we had some scandals recently. Big-name people making big bucks by lying to people. Big-name people taking people for a ride, doing a Ponzi. The amounts pilfered were so huge that pickpockets and would-be eye-gougers suddenly appeared to be respectable and considerate. My friend R. Manamendra committed suicide after being short-changed of all his savings in the Golden Key scandal (read ‘daylight robbery’). I am yet to hear of someone hanging him/herself on account of being pickpocketed. Depositors are still to be compensated.
Ponzi schemes are not the only kind of white-collar crime, though. I am thinking of the kinds of crimes engaged in by professionals. Again, these are ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ we are talking about. Clean-hands people. They are not pickpocketing types, surely? Right. They are not. Pick a pocket and you get a handful of bucks; well, a couple of thousands which in these inflationary times amount to peanuts. Let me relate some stories.
We are talking about cataract surgeries. The glass lens that is suitable in 95% of the cases costs just Rs. 700. Certain Government Ophthalmologists reportedly discourage the purchase of these lenses. There is however one Ophthalmologist I know, who is perfectly happy with this lens type and performs 80-100 surgeries a day on average. Now, is he stupid? Should he lose his licence for incompetence? Is he a ‘quack’? No, he’s just doing things differently. He doesn’t have to, but doing things this way means that cataract operations become affordable to a larger number of people.
Let’s take the Cardiologists. They decide sometimes that patients require stenting. Now if all you want is to go from Thimbirigasyaya to Town Hall, you can take a three wheeler. You can cycle. You can walk there. You could take a bus. If you insist on going by car, you can go in a Maruti-Suzuki, a Cherry QQ or a Rolls Royce. What is recommended, folks, is a Rolls Royce Stent. The unsuspecting patient will not know that there are Cherry QQ or 3-wheeler stents that will do the job just as well. The un-frilled device they could get for less is hardly recommended. Instead, frilled versions, with exorbitant prices get recommended.
It wouldn’t happen if there was integrity. It wouldn’t happen if those responsible for ensuring that such schemes don’t undercut the objectives of ‘free healthcare’ did their job. It might help to increase the number of skilled people in the country. Did the former minister know about these unethical practices, these trust-violations and blatant fraud? Is the present minister ready to look into these issues?
Does this also happen in Orthopedic procedures such as hip-replacements and knee-joint replacements? Are patients required to purchase branded devices from surgeon-specified sources carrying trade-named when the hospitals carry them? Is supply deliberately kept low or even at zero?
I know enough ‘professionals’ who bark at police officers taking bribes from drivers who are guilty of minor offences. They even point their fingers at politicians and howl with righteous anger about corruption, lack of respect for the rule of law etc.
We are not talking about that wonderful world of market economics here, i.e one where demand and supply curves play willy-nilly and according to some kind of internal logic. We are talking about price-fixing and about agreement among sellers. We are talking about corporate monopolies. About complicity on the part of relevant officials.
George Bernard Shaw said, ‘the most tragic thing in the world is a sick doctor’. With due apologies to all the wonderful doctors out there healing patients and being absolutely honourable and of unblemished character, I concur and note that Shaw didn’t say ‘the most tragic thing in the world is that all doctors are sick’. He qualified. I do too.
We need a counter-corruption commission. Fast. An independent one. Mr. President, you are known to have reservations about the efficacy of the 17th Amendment. Fine. How about an alternative that can do the job? The citizens of this country all have eyes. They have hearts. Knees and hips. Some of these will need replacement or some kind of prop sooner or later. You too, Mr. President. I am sure surgeon and supplier will do the honours free of charge. I will not have that privilege, no. Neither would the vast majority of my fellow citizens. Any thought, Mr. President?