Ralph Thompson, Guest Columnist
MUCH OF the confusion which clouds the debate about corruption in high places in Jamaica is caused by a failure to distinguish between actions that may not be illegal but which are nevertheless clearly unethical. What is legal and what is ethical are not the same thing although there is a large area of overlap between them.
The law reflects a society's minimum standards of conduct but there are many higher societal standards which are not codified in law. There may be no law prohibiting a contractor from accepting a job he is not qualified to perform but this would clearly be unethical. Conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof may be legal but are generally considered to be unethical. On the other hand, some laws like the anti-miscegenation statutes in many American states are abhorrently unethical.
It is helpful to bear in mind that any codex of laws is a sub-set of the ethical, moral order which bestows upon the law its validity and authority. No set of laws, not even the minutiae of the Scribes and the Pharisees in Biblical times, could deal with every aspect of human behaviour, many areas of which had to be left to a moral conscience.
DIFFICULT TO ENFORCE
Laws in and of themselves are not a sufficient guide to hold a society together. They are often ambiguous, politically slanted and difficult to prove and enforce. A society with abundant laws but no moral conscience is like a sturdy ship without a rudder, doomed eventually to sink.
In England, the ethical consensus which held that class-riddled society together was often no more profound than the saying, "It simply isn't cricket, ole chap". That worked to a remarkable extent in its time but became diluted as it filtered down to the colonies where, eventually, the ethical sense collapsed as disastrously as our ability to play cricket. Nor was a national ethical consciousness in Jamaica helped by the popularity of Anancy stories fed to our children, stories in which Anancy becomes a hero applauded for his 'ginalship'. When Anancy assumes a disguise to mislead a neighbour, he may not be doing anything illegal but he is clearly acting unethically.
CORRUPTION IS RAMPANT
IN HIGH PLACES
The Jamaican people are now aware that corruption is rampant in high places. Scandal after scandal is exposed in the media but the political apologies, quick to limit wrongdoing to what is defined in law, rationalise away the ethical element by claiming that there is no corruption unless it can be proved that the act resulted in unjust enrichment, conveniently forgetting the benefit that might accrue to party or comrade.
It is high time that we stop trying to deal with corruption in purely legal terms. The Prime Minister's recent call for the development of a code of conduct to address corrupt officials in the public sector may be a long overdue step in the right direction, especially his instructions that every ministry and agency should appoint a senior officer who would have responsibility for monitoring the ethical behaviour of staff.
PROFESSIONAL ETHICIANS
In this connection it should be noted that many large companies in America now have on staff professional ethicians to help guide corporate policy. Ethics is not some airy, fairy set of platitudes. It is a science, an established branch of philosophy stretching back to Aristotle and Kant and vigorously updated by modern philosophers like John Rawls.
Perhaps it is time for companies quoted on the Jamaica Stock Exchange to place ethicians on retainer and employ them to run training sessions on business ethics.
When a law is broken, the offender can be fined or sent to goal. Ethics, however, is a moral force and if its guiding spirit is to be revivified in Jamaica, ethical offenders may not end up in prison but their conduct must be unambiguously and publicly condemned by their superiors. If they are not sufficiently honourable to resign their posts, then they should be fired forthwith. This is the only way to establish in the public psyche that the days of Anancy are over. that those who indulge in unethical conduct in the use of taxpayers' money will be treated as pariahs in the society and expelled from any position of trust in it.
Ralph Thompson is an attorney-at-law and a businessman.
