One response to the bribery scandal at the American University in Dubai is that the students who paid administrators to change their failing grades into passes were ultimately cheating themselves. Resorting to kickbacks rather than actually gaining mastery of their area of study meant their own educational development has been inhibited.
But that reaction fails to reflect the pernicious nature of this kind of corruption and the need to stamp it out wherever it occurs. If the 20 students who paid a total of Dh300,000 to two administrators were to get away with this, how tempting would it be for them to adopt similar practices to get ahead throughout their professional lives? If bribery is able to become entrenched, it is the UAE as a whole that will pay the price.
Given the pervasive use of bribery in parts of this region, we need to be on constant guard against those who might be tempted to introduce it here. The two university administrators involved were from Russia and Lebanon. It is no coincidence that the countries where bribery is endemic also tend to be among the most economically dysfunctional.
The UAE stands as an example to this region not solely because of our stability and tolerance but also because of our belief in the rule of law and the very low incidence of this kind of corrupt conduct. One reason why so many of the best and brightest want to work here is because success is determined primarily by ability and enterprise rather than through shorting the system.
With so much at stake and, as this case demonstrates, the insidious way corruption can be introduced, there has to be zero tolerance of it, however isolated the case might seem.
We welcome the three-year jail terms imposed on each of these administrators because it sends a clear message that we will not allow this pernicious practice to take root here. We should venerate the rule of law – whether in university admissions, in business or even in terms of the road rules – because so much of our future relies on it.
