12 steps to national recovery from corruption

Recently, I’ve been reading about Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 12 Steps to Recovery, a program that helps people conquer their addiction to alcohol and other substances. It has been around for many decades and has helped transform hundreds of thousands of addicts all over the world. 

The 12 Steps are powerful and transformative. I know people who have used them to great effect. I have seen them remarkably sober after many years of malingering substance abuse. They managed to return to their functional lives before they were swallowed by their drug habit and have remained alcohol and substance free for years now.

Addiction can be catastrophic. It can disrupt the social and  moral fabric that holds a person, a family and a society together. The addicted gets trapped in an illusory world where he becomes totally enslaved by his addiction.

The 12 Steps have been used successfully to treat other addictions as well, such as gambling, sex and others. Now here’s a wild thought:  What if the 12 Steps of AA were applied to help us as a society face our pathologies and conquer them so we can be less dysfunctional as a nation? Can it help us conquer corruption on a personal level so that we become less prone to it as a people?

Think of our milieu—family, neighbors, colleagues, and everyone in our country as belonging to some sort of fellowship trying to honestly grapple with our own personal weaknesses. 

Imagine that we are in a town hall or barangay in a gathering similar to that of an AA meeting. We open ourselves to each other, exposing our vulnerabilities. There is no judgment or condemnation and we let down our defenses as we recognize the possibility that we ourselves are co-dependents of corruption. How can we not be? We voted for the corrupt and continue to do so.

It is in this context that I imagine the possibility of the 12 Steps working its gifts on us. Addiction is a spiritual disease, and the 12 Steps are a spiritual path to recovery.

Here are the 12 Steps with my commentary on how they can apply to our situation.  To make it more relevant, I have replaced the word “alcohol” with “corruption.”

The exercise begins with the introduction: ‘I am ________ I am a Filipino and I am addicted to/ or a co-dependent of corruption.’

• We admitted that we were powerless over corruption — that our lives had become unmanageable.

The first step towards recovery is to admit there is a big problem that must be faced. It has become so pronounced that we can’t deny it anymore, not even to ourselves. Recently, we as a nation have awakened to the reality that we are corrupt, that corruption is pervasive in our political, social and personal lives.

Look around us. It is everywhere. People like Napoles and even corrupt high government officials continue to be prominently well-placed in our society. The corrupt are rewarded while the honest are given a hard time.

• Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

We are slowly realizing that we cannot rely on a few people or institutions to save us from the curse of corruption.  That’s a complete copout.  We must ALL be involved in purging this pathology that has permeated our social and moral fabric. Through the power of the many, we will we become consciously aware and act together to save ourselves.

• Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Since corruption is a spiritual issue that erodes character, believing in the power of conscience, God (or our Higher Power), reminding ourselves of the simplest moral code common to all people, can help us say “no” to corruption. We must go back to the basics of our beliefs and trust that God will empower us to help us free ourselves.

• Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Let’s be brutally honest in our assessment of ourselves. Let’s purge ourselves of our delusions. Let us admit to both our strengths and weaknesses. Full disclosure is what is being demanded here. An excruciating reality check is in order.  Individually, we must also admit that we have somehow contributed to our society’s moral decay. We have engaged in bribery ourselves at one time or another, or at least allowed it to happen and did nothing to stop it.

• Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

We all must do an admission of guilt, both those who have been accused and those who accuse. Nothing less is expected. We must know the entire story of how we got here. Admitting we have wronged the nation, ourselves and each other in big or small ways, and accepting full accountability for our actions is key to breaking free from corruption. We must own up to our actions. This is an act of responsibility, humility, honesty and great courage. It is also an act of liberation.

• Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

We must be willing to completely dismantle the structure, habits, practices, mindsets, attitudes that perpetuate this pattern of corruption pervading in our lives.  There must be structural, spiritual and psychological change in all levels. We must also work on ourselves so that we do not contribute to the culture of corruption in any way.

• Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Have the humility to admit that we are part of the problem, and ask our better selves and our God to give us the moral strength to help us be freed from this addiction to corruption.

• Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Let us reach out to those members of society we may have unknowingly deprived of their rightful share of opportunities and gifts in our corrupt pursuit of wealth and money. We must reach out to the communities especially those that continue to suffer from the  injustice we have perpetrated, and do our part in alleviating their situation.

• Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

There is real compassion and there is idiot compassion. The idiotic kind is toxic and perpetuates further co-dependency. We must have a compassion that liberates people, the kind that does not deny them their dignity while we are  helping them. Otherwise, we are merely feeding their dependence addiction and opening them and ourselves to more potentially corruptive situations.

• Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Adopt and embrace a culture of self-awareness where we are willing to subject ourselves to constructive criticism to improve as individuals and as a people. We must learn to accept feedback. As a society, we must be honest enough to admit our faults and go beyond merely talking about it and actually doing something about it.

• Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

We need to be connected and answerable to a Higher Power — God, however we see and understand Him. We must also listen to our conscience so that we may be inspired to pursue real personal and social change. That means going deep into ourselves and everything we believe and value, and drawing strength and direction from our core to transform ourselves, and eventually our nation.

• Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to the corrupt and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

We must become true to ourselves and to our Higher Power in every way possible. We must mean what we say and say what we mean.  We must spread the true word to others by example.  We can liberate each other through inspiring actions. We must apply the moral standards we expect from our leaders to our own selves.

If we all actually walk the talk, others will see that change is possible.