In Their Own Words: Why People Engage in Corruption

This is a student in Bishkek. He’s from Batken, the southernmost—as the poorest—of Kyrgyzstan’s seven provinces. We got to talking about corruption. Nearly everyone I have talked to here says that people in general, and especially government leaders, are corrupt. It’s just a widespread assumption that people take bribes, get their relatives and other supporters into powerful positions, and generally act dishonestly. This student was unusually honest about how he, personally, relates to all of that.

I want to be honest, fair, but that’s going to be hard, I think. I could be lying to myself. I’m afraid I’m lying, that I’m saying right now that I’m going to be honest and fair, but then some situation will come up where I’ll have to lie a little or…but I’m going to try not to do that, because…I don’t know. I just that people—and maybe I don’t understand the ins and outs of it—but if I understood, maybe I’d talk different. Maybe I’d say that I could do this little dishonest thing and get a lot of money from it. I just know a lot of people who say if you do certain things you can make a lot of money—through corruption or something else—you can do that. I’m afraid with time I will change. People always change in the face of other people’s influence. First of all they see the opportunity to make some money. It pulls them, attracts them. They make an excuse, “Ok, I’ll do it this time, but not any more.” And then, the gradually come to like it. Then they have some kind of need. They want to fulfill that need, but they can only do it that way [through corruption]. These are obvious things. They’re everywhere. Honestly I’m afraid. You become more aware of things, maybe I’ll have some things I really need. I don’t know, I don’t want it to be that way. I’d like to have enough without that. I’m just afraid that if I don’t have enough of something, I’ll start looking for a way to…I can’t say I won’t look for way, if they offer to…I don’t know. One side says take it. The other side says “No, stop.” I’d make myself feel better by saying, “Oh, but look how many other people do it. I’ll do it too.” That’s how you feel when you go along with the majority—that’s how it is with corruption—a lot of people are doing it. How are they going to find out about me? I’m not alone. There are hundreds of people doing it.