3 August 2006

23 – Change the faces of politics

I’m continuing to publish some questions and answers from the book "Intervista su Tangentopoli" published by Laterza and edited by Giovanni Valentini.

GV: Do you not think that a certain level of corruption is physiological in all systems and in all regimes? Do you think that in Italy the phenomenon by now has become chronic?
ADP: Each person acts in the historic reality in which they live. It’s like the cannibal in the jungle, even the citizen in Tangentopoli adapts in the end. It’s human nature.
But however, it’s necessary to repeat that the principles of honesty and the respect for the law are the source of gain and development within a State that is democratic, free and solid. However, I don’t believe that corruption in Italy has been more serious and more widespread than in other countries.
With us, people paid simply to be allowed to sit at the table, independently of the effective benefit, without being sure of getting a result. And this is the reason why I talked about “environmental taxation” to say that it was corruption adopted by the system.

GV: OK, well then what can the possible remedies be?
ADP: In looking for remedies, Italy is behind others because of the current fragmentation of the party system. In this field however, it’s not enough to punish. Here it’s a matter of giving value to the opportunity and the usefulness of respecting the rules.
It’s necessary to reaffirm the principle that only by the transparency and the efficiency of the system can the freedom of the market be affectively guaranteed.
But the “moral question” cannot have a political and ideological basis. It’s not possible to divide society into goodness and badness, into the good and the bad, according to whether you are on the right or on the left. Indeed it is now a battle that is typically transversal. To put an end to this market of exchange, for the exchange of favours, we need a new system of controls – control of others – and control of self.
Above all we need to change the faces in politics. Then we need to create a pre-politics community. We need to collect together honest citizens, good people, and gentlemen.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Interview about Tangentopoli