I write this not to defend the former agriculture minister or his colleagues - charged last week with corruption - but to defend law and justice, and to suggest an alternative to fight corruption.
Let me pose the following question: Could the former minister possibly be innocent of the charges against him? Or is he undoubtedly guilty?
If his crime is not in question, there’s no need for investigations, a trial, a lawyer to defend him, or for witnesses, or audiovisual recordings.
The court just needs to pass its sentence and, voila, we will have triumphed over corruption and sent a strong message that the state is serious in its fight against corruption, in addition to saving valuable time and effort.
But if there’s some slim possibility of innocence, then the defendant must be held innocent unless found guilty by a final court verdict—not by the court of public opinion, the media, or the regulatory authorities - and should enjoy all the rights of defence.
But since his resignation and arrest, the former minister has been declared guilty by the media, the public, and even senior officials, leaving no doubt that he committed the alleged crime and deserves the maximum punishment.
Moreover, commentators have opined that other ministers are parties to the crime, naming names and offering as proof appearing in a photograph with one of the accused.
There is no doubt that Egypt has a serious corruption problem. This is a major challenge that angers the public and impedes development efforts.
Corruption is not only measured in the value of bribes and gifts received by state officials. More important are the jobs, resources, and funds that are lost, the squandering of energies and the undermining of citizens’ sense of belonging.
But if the state, government, and oversight bodies sincerely wish to staunch government corruption and institute deterrent measures against those involved, the same old methods and tools will not work. They will only create the same old problems.
Personalizing the issue reduces the war on corruption to the prosecution of a few individuals, and the final objective is thus achieved once they are rooted out.
This may give the public and the media a target for their anger, but it entails no real change in the policies, laws, and systems that encourage corruption and make its recurrence inevitable, even if in different guises.
Moreover, the popular and media rush to declare any person guilty of corruption before the conclusion of trial is an assault on the Constitution and justice and infringes on the work of the judiciary.
If there’s one lesson we should’ve learned in past years, it’s that the media frenzy and public outcry surrounding these cases has not ended corruption.
On the contrary, it inspires fear and anxiety among officials, paralyzes government bodies, and encourages media smear campaigns. It likely also distracts us from the real areas of corruption.
Corruption shouldn’t only be pursued after the fact. There must be a preventive system and changes to the regulations, laws, and practices that promote corruption in the future.
More important than bringing down any single official is upgrading laws and regulations for government tenders, the allocation of state lands, the granting of various business permits, and other entry points for cronyism and abuse.
Corruption will not be contained otherwise—the temptation and opportunity are too great.
If the agriculture minister’s case signals the beginning of a war on corruption, I welcome it, but it needs to abandon the old laws and tools that caused us to lose previous battles, and it needs to forgo the popular and media incitement against specific figures that makes us forget the need for systemic change.
Other approaches have been successfully used by other states to prevent corruption, and we have dozens of studies and draft laws that could contribute to the fight. The important thing is that the goal is to root out corruption and its causes, not simply hound a couple of officials out of office.
The writer holds a PhD in financial law from the London School of Economics. He is former deputy prime minister, former chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority and former chairman of the General Authority for Investment.
