King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein of Jordan speaks at the World Economic Forum.

Thomas Fouad Lund-Sørensen is the Danish ambassador to Jordan, keeps a blog and contributes to 7iber, a Jordanian citizen journalism portal.

Fighting Corruption In Jordan: Learning From The Danish Experience

Transparency International (TI) publicized its anti-corruption index for 2008 this week. The eight most non-corrupt countries have something in common. They are small-sized economies with no natural resources. They are all heavily dependent on their ability to trade and engage with foreign countries. And they are all well established Rule-of-Law societies. Why do I say that? Because this is where Jordan should be and not further down the rankings.

Let’s have a look at my own country, Denmark that once again topped the ranking of non-corrupt countries. There are a number of reasons for that. First, and foremost, the Danish society has through the years developed a widespread culture against corruption. Starting in the 17th century, corruption was made a criminal offense and enforced rather strictly. The next major achievement came during the 1920’s where a code on public servants that guaranteed a reasonable salary, job security and pension in particular for the lower echelons was adopted, and corruption laws came under review. Today, it is morally and utterly unacceptable to provide or receive anything that could resemble corruption. An example - trying to bribe your way out of a speeding ticket or into a construction permit will certainly get you an extra criminal charge on your neck.

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