Recall the simple doings of a government. A government is always elected by the people of a country. People vote according to their own preferences and choices. The right to vote can’t be taken away from any citizen, irrespective of caste, colour, or any other type of discrimination. Whether elections are authentic or managed is a separate discussion. We don’t want to discuss that now. The main thing we want to discuss is the usual flow of work in a government.
The government that is elected by the people manages its finances from different sources, such as collecting taxes from the public, and these taxes can be sales, salaries, income, property, withholding, or any other type of tax we can count. The taxes are basically the backbone of the government’s finances and ultimately its stability. Now, we, being the citizens of a country to whom we pay tax, usually demand things or benefits in return. Like, most important and common benefits that are the most fundamental rights of any citizen without any discrimination include Food, Shelter, Education, and Medicine. The government usually divides the total tax from different sources equally or according to the demand in the above-mentioned things.
In developed societies where the ultimate goal of the government is to take care of people’s affairs, where the government is answerable to the public and pays heed to people’s health and education, these taxes are divided mainly between the Health and Education departments. When people are raised well morally and also with respect to health, they will usually become a valuable part of society.
Privatization is a well-known practice in underdeveloped or developing countries. Privatization means, for the sake of public interest, the government sells government departments to private business owners. Proper auctions are carried out for this purpose. Mostly, the government sells non-profitable departments in the name of better development of such departments. The government usually claims that, due to insufficient funds, they are unable to look after the specific department.
The government’s stance to improve the standard of a department is acceptable until the privatization approaches the crucial departments like health and education. When people in power start to talk about the privatization of health and education departments, an idea of corruption usually clicks every capable mind. Such practice is being observed in countries like Pakistan. The government is interested in privatizing the government hospitals and schools. So, it means that the amount of tax collection will remain the same, but the government will no longer allocate any funds to these departments because of privatization.
Here is the route of corruption. The government in countries like Pakistan usually keeps its people within the bubble of Food and Shelter. So, privatization will result in an ultimate increase in school tuition fees and medical expenditures. Privatization will keep the right to learn and enjoy medical facilities limited to the elite class.
Furthermore, after privatization, taxes that were previously allocated to education and health will now be in the pockets of people in power. So, whenever a government follows a policy of privatization, it might have the smell of corruption behind it. The innocent citizens have a limited definition of corruption to bribery and charging more than the actual price, but the real corruption is the one that seems legal but is illegal, just like privatization.
