Sovereignty of SeaWitch

This weekend, a 60 year old woman dominated the headlines in Greek media. On Friday, Eleni Voulgani, walked into the Labour Ministry's office with some sweets, a 5000€ cheque and a hidden tape recorder. According to Mrs. Voulgani, she had attempted to catch a politician on tape of accepting her bribe. According to the politicians, she had offered a bribe for the sole purpose of obtaining a position for her son in the civil service. Despite the attention devoted to the story, details of what actually happened are fuzzy. Righteous indignation from the deputy minister, Gerasimos Giakoumatos and New Democracy mouthpieces have obscured what actually transpired.

Makis Triantafilipoulos, host of Alpha channel's "Zougla" show was also dragged into the dog & pony show with people on all sides accusing him of masterminding the plot to get politicians caught red-handed on the take. Last night, he categorically denied setting her up to do anything and she confirmed his story. While on the show, he produced two police reports filed against Voulgani...in one Giakoumatos stated he was in the office, in the other, he stated he was not present when she dropped off the bribe. After Voulgani left the Labour Ministry office,5 hours had lapsed between the filing the complaint and her subsequent arrest. In addition, Voulgani submitted two business cards of the civil servant she left the bribe with where he had written his home address and phone number on them. It was at Mr. Rembis' home that she had already delivered kilos of cheese and roast pork.

However, these details have not been reported in the print media. Instead, they choose to parrot what looks to be the official New Democracy response on the matter...that society is the problem by allowing citizens to walk around taping conversations. Given that Greece ranks 47th on Transparency International's Corruption Index (alongside Namibia, no less), it is completely understandable why people in Greece feel the need to take hidden cameras or microphones with them to record meetings with public officials, doctors and civil servants.

After questioning her motives, the character assassination began. Within 24 hours she no longer was a 'lady' or a 'citizen' but a housewife. 72 hours later, they rolled out the inevitable 'blame the media' stance championed by everyone once their actions have been put under the public microscope. By the time Voulganis gets to court, all anyone will remember is that she was the silly, misguided housewife with a tape recorder and the pervasive problem of government corruption will be swept under the carpet once again.

The finger has been pointed at just about everyone in this case except the officials involved. More questions need to be answered. Why would a public official feel the need to give out his home address and phone number to a citizen unless there was something shady going on? Why did Mr. Rembis accept previous gifts from her at his home? Why did it take so long for her to be arrested? Why did he file two different police reports? Why is no one calling into question the logic behind Karamanlis' decision to give Giakoumatos a government post after he brandished a gun in parliament and uttered death threats against a PASOK minister in 1998 and was suspended for it?

If Mrs. Voulgani's true intention was to capture bribery on tape, she certainly went about it in an irresponsible and careless manner. She definitely will have to respond to the allegations levelled against her in court but will any of the officials involved have to address theirs?