COMMENTARY: Tolerance for Bribery in Greece Must End Now

A new survey -- just released this week -- indicates that a third of Greece's population believes that corruption is that country's biggest problem.

This finding is surprising, as most people outside of Greece probably would have expected Greece's dismal economy -- accompanied by its high unemployment rate -- to be its biggest problem.

Nonetheless, more than half of Greece's population -- 53 percent to be precise -- see nothing wrong with bribing a public servant, in order to receive preferential treatment.

Moreover, the survey -- conducted by the Athens University of Economics and Business -- found that 80 percent of the respondents said that they did not believe that any of those involved in bribery would be punished.

This bribery practice -- which is now pervading all of Greece -- needs to stop immediately.

A law must be passed quickly in Greece requiring severe punishment for anyone who offers a bribe to a public official and to any public official who accepts a bribe.

In fact, a public official convicted of receiving a bribe must be terminated from his job by this law.

This action is the only way that this problem will be rectified. Without a law forbidding bribery -- and the enforcement of that law, with no exception -- bribery will continue to prevail in Greece.

Indeed, bribery is a an unfortunate, immoral, and unChristian "modus operandi" in Greece, especially when one keeps in mind that Greece was the birthplace of democracy more than 2,000 years ago -- Greece's democratic principles still serve as the foundation for democracy in America and many other free nations -- and that bribery was not tolerated one iota in Greece at that time!