Essay: CORRUPTION IN ASIA

THE Thais call it gin muong (nation eating). In Chinese, it is known as tan wu (greedy impurity), in Japanese oshoku (dirty job), and to the Pakistanis, it is ooper ki admani (income from above). Every Oriental language has its own phrase for corruption—and in every tongue the words are unpleasantly familiar. All around the rim of mainland China, many Asian nations are making notable progress, but the greatest obstacle remains the furtive hand in the till, the kickback artist, the bagman, the specialist in "squeeze." Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, who has more...