Corruption in Poland

Corruption in Poland as a result of the 50 years of "communist rule". Law and justice - but what about honesty?

According to many, Poland is not only one of the most corrupted countries in Europe, but the most corrupted one. Even the former US secretary of state Zbigniew Brzezinski, commented on the subject during his recent visit to Poland in his speech (in Polish) after the death of the Pope.

The communist system, although its ideas were exciting, unfortunately was not embraced nor understood by the people. It either came too early, or the people were simply not able to understand how good it was if applied properly. The ownership of the means of production by the state meant to the great majority of Poles that they did not belong to anyone. "We are the state," some were saying, "thus, nothing improper, if I take home a bit of my property. It is not stealing, you can't steal something that belongs to you."

The Poles, not unlike any other nation, are selfish. Everyone for himself, this is why capitalism works, and communism doesn't. People look after their own property; they don't look after the state's property. In that situation the factories, agriculture, etc were left on its own. No one cared.

On the other hand, the country of "workers and peasants" disrespected the very people it was meant to represent. The educated communist elite was in charge. The people with university degrees enjoyed high incomes and high standard of living while the "working class" was exceedingly poor. The state controlled media lied about the state of the country, about ambitious plans and achievements that were simply false. Everyone lied to each other. And the ruling class gave the worst examples of how you should act. The people in power were speaking with double-tongues; on one hand extolling the virtues of the honesty in a socialist state, on the other hand, stealing like crazy, promoting their own interests in the society, giving the best jobs to family and friends and so on.

The "cheating" system does exist even in other countries, but in the East, in Poland, it was a party doctrine. Join the communist party, be a consummate liar, collect the riches, climb up the ladder. Bribes and lies were an accepted method of gaining success - stealing from the state, a rule.

No wonder that fifty years of this kind of indoctrination resulted in a warped nation. As Abba sang, "Money, money, money" - nothing else mattered.

Formally Poland as a member of EU follows the same set of laws as the other of its members, in practice, the old system is still in place. Since the same people, already educated and in charge during the "socialist" era are still in power, nothing has changed. The former president Mr. Kwasniewski was a communist party member, as an example. Socialism, democracy - the name of the systems may change, all the career politicians care about is to survive. And survive they did.

Almost no one was given the sack, although, the members of the secret police, police, justice system, etc have had held their positions during the "old times" working well within the old system. The Polish laws are supposed to comply with the EUs, but law is one thing, justice yet another. The best proof of the current situation in Poland is the arrival of a new party that finds the need to call itself: "Law and justice". (Funnily enough no one, in this context, talks about honesty.)

It seems the party means that although the laws exist, they are not being applied in a proper way, and although Poland has a justice system, it does not administer justice, as it should.

For any Pole it is obvious that this is the case. The talk about scandals and corruption, that includes even the President (Kwasniewski) and his wife, is the most common subject in the media, that itself is not immune from accusations. It has taken fifty years of "socialism" to create a "new socialist people" (which spells as cheats and an opportunists), the question now is, how long will it take to create an honest one.

Mark.

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Very well written. And I agree fully to your views. I see how the hit and run culture blossoms here in Poland. Being a foreigner here, I always get "adjusted" prices for any service I need done here.

What I can't understand is how shortsighted people are here. They don't understand that what you gain in short term, you loose in the long one.

Honesty will always prevail. But will the polish people understand that before it's too late?

Yep, many Polish people still don't understand that long-term planning is way better than "here-and-now". It will change though I hope.

... but that's not only the problem of Poland; when I was in Costa Rica, people charged me at least double or triple just because I didn't know Spanish and tried to talk to them in English. You would not even find a price list there -- the price depends on "who you are". In Poland, at least, it's not as bad since you usually know he price in advance ;).

As my Polish cousin Ula put it on a recent visit here to Chicago, the corruption and 'back-door' dealings of Poland's slimy leadership will not change until these old-timers die, and a new generation takes over. With access to the rest of the world after the fall of Communism, I think the younger generations, our leaders of tomorrow, will bring with them modern ideas and attitudes. Unfortunately, I don't believe we'll see any substantial change in Poland's deep-rooted, communist-era corruption and mentality for quite some time. It will be important for the people of Poland to keep these types of candidates out of office. I would rather vote for a young whipper-snapper with no experience than to vote for a seasoned (i.e., experienced in corruption) politico left over from the Communist era.

Yep - maybe the next generation will be different. Especially those who have seen the West as their attitude towards hard work should be changed for better.

It seems everything will be different and better "in the next generation" in Poland. My great grand father used to tell me that too. Now I'll be telling the same my great grand children... :|

Ofcourse we have a corruption problem here... but we are certainly not "the most corrupted country in Europe"... we are probably only the most corrupt country in the EU (together with some of the Baltic Republics) ...but this is going to change after the admission of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU community :) ...and in general we`re no match when it comes to corruption compared with Russia, Ukraine.. or any European country outside of the EU.


So according to you the i.e. Americans must have also been "corrupted by socialism" ? :)

It seems to me that it`s you - who is the real socialsist here..


Name me a country in which politicians wouldn`t everything in their power to be reelected..

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This isn`t corruption - it`s the exploatation of people who are an easy target of being exploited.

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I unederstand that in the so called "west" there is no corruption ...I will only name a few names here: Berlusconi, Chirac, Kohl, Schroeder, Cheney... ect.. ect..

@Mark here`s a raport made by Transparency International:

transparency.org/content/download/2160/12762/file/Global_Corruption_Barometer_2005_(full_report).pdf

There`s a statistic on page 24 showing what % of the people in that country had actually paid bribes THEMSELVES (Had experience corruption first hand)

As you see we`re below the World average. Even a higher % of people in Greece had been PERSONALLy taking part in corruption.

..but if you ask a Pole about the corruption in his country then he is going to say that "Poland is the most corrupt country in the World".. this comes from self-multiplying rumours ..because some people had heard somewhere that someone has given some bribes and that`s why they think that everybody is giving bribes.. as well as it`s because of the media which cover the corruption scandals - that happened here during the early 90s - but are coming to light right now... which is creating a popular impression that all of those stories are happening now as well as that there are many of them (most of the corruption stories that have been uncovered over the past 2 years took place over a period of 15 years) ...and so as a result the people here are living in an atmosphere of that creates the ideas that corruption is everywhere, which to a certain extent is far from the truth.

Congratultions on your comments, I fully agree...the old corrupt and dishonest previous communist are now doing well in the new poland.. it will take a long, long time before poles will able to trust one another and have respect for politicians, those old party members now masquarading as business elite etc, still have a lot to answer for and should answer criminal and human right charges.

It has happened in all the post communist states-I guess its much worse in Russia and China.The same people who would have had you imprisoned/shot for running a business are now themselves earning millions for owning ex state owned businesses.Its a disgrace and also a disgrace that our(British)government allows all these Russian millionaires who stole their wealth to live in London like kings.

yeah much worse in the old soviet union, but a lot of poles are still being protected by friends in the government and government agencies.

It has happened in all the post communist states-I guess its much worse in Russia and China.The same people who would have had you imprisoned/shot for running a business are now themselves earning millions for owning ex state owned businesses.Its a disgrace and also a disgrace that our(British)government allows all these Russian millionaires who stole their wealth to live in London like kings.

Easy answer- nowadays you can buy everything( or nearly everything ) with money

Or with sex.. :)

First you get the money, then comes the power and finally the women.

I would like to point out about this whole corruption thingy.
Do people not see the UK and USA as corrupt?
Good example cash for honours scandal in UK.
The USA and UK dealings through out the third world, in concert with the large multinationals.

Perhaps there is a lot of low level corruption, which is why its so noticeble in Polska.
But don't believe that in the West we aren't corrupt..we are.

I'm also a foreigner living in Poland. Been here for over 6 months now, and I've learned that a little bribe always works in this country. Whether it be a cash bribe or a gift bribe - it doesn't matter, as long as someone's making a profit. It seems, as though, that bribes don't work in all situations so you might want to give it a second thought before bribing a Polish citizen.

The stereotype of corrupt needs to be erased from people's memories. The country's moving into a new cycle and, hopefully, the era of bribes and corrupted politicians will only be in history books.

What really needs to be improved in Poland is the bureaucratic system that you can find in government offices - too much paperwork, too many stamps, too many signatures, too many old people working there thinking they're still working for the communists. They don't trust computers, they say, yet, they have a computer screen in front of them. Carbon paper is still used by offices galore. Why wouldn't they simply print 2 copies of the same document right there and then? Go figure!

Being positive is the key and hopefully the changes will come naturally -- and people will have no problems accepting those changes.

Cross your fingers!