PUBLIC SERVICE, IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

The last two weeks have seen a flurry of activity to mark Integrity Day.

I was in Sarawak last week and was privileged to see for myself how one man’s passion for ethical public behaviour has succeeded in putting integrity at the very centre of everything at the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC). The man in question is Datuk Talib Zulpilip, its hands-on chairman.

Years before the Integrity Institute was born, the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation had succeeded in meshing integrity into its business strategy and work culture. 

First launched in 1996 by the remarkable man of enormous personal honor and integrity, the late Datuk Taha Ariffin, when he was the deputy state secretary, the SEDC has since celebrated Integrity Day each year almost without a break.

SEDC’s Integrity Day is not your usual hollow ritual lacking in substance but a celebration to renew personal commitment to high standards of ethical behavior in the public interest.

The upsurge of interest in integrity and ethics in our national life is not without a good reason. People all over the world have realised that human progress is unlikely to be sustainable without all of us giving due attention to universal human values – values that transcend religious, cultural and political boundaries.

There is no difference in the ethical standards expected and demanded of the political leadership, the bureaucratic elite running a government department or a top corporate executive managing a public-listed enterprise.

Indeed, their duties ought to be characterized by an ethical obligation to exercise the power entrusted to them with the utmost care so as to benefit those to whom the have a responsibility.

In other words, their decisions must be motivated solely by considerations of public interest and their actions have to be subjected to public scrutiny at all times.

After all, their power is but entrusted power, held in trust, and not intended to benefit them personally or their relatives and cronies. This best sums up the tradition of public service, in the public interest.

Ethics, not corruption, must therefore be institutionalised. Unethical public behavior compromises values and leads to all kinds of distortions and inequalities.

Politicians have to put public interest where it belongs, at the core of their political existence, if they are to justify their role in today’s globalised world. They are under a moral obligation to adopt high ethical standards consistent with the expectations of the public at large.

An important underlying principle governing the conduct of elected politicians is that of trusteeship which is tantamount to the concept of stewardship. This important principle of public duty appears to be not understood at all.

As we have seen, corruption thrives whenever institutions and the systems that support them have been weakened and are no longer capable of performing their constitutional, legislative or administrative watch-dog functions.

Whether you are a state assemblywoman or a member of parliament, you must ensure that the institutions, established under the Constitutions to protect citisens and their rights, retain their independence – by ensuring that the doctrine of principle of the separation of powers, as provided under our democratic parliamentary systems, remains inviolate.

Our parliamentary system, already under great pressure, cannot be effective if the leadership is actively allowed or encouraged to weaken it to a point where it becomes nothing more than a ‘rubber stamp’. Once this happens, democracy, our preferred system, is put at very considerable risk.

Equally under threat are the mechanism of checks and balances that are so essential for the proper functioning and development of democracy itself.

The final blow to democratic values is struck when the parliament that is established to protect and defend the rights of the rich and poor alike allows its freedom to act in the public interest to be hijacked by those with their own agenda.

The role of ethics in the context we are discussing is to encourage integrity and promote high standards of public behavior, the sort of behavior that rejects corruption totally. Ethical public behavior will help to increase transparency and accountability. That, in essence, is what public duty is largely about.

One of the most worrying problems we face today, both in business and government, is the speed with which corruption has spilled over into our national life. When religious and moral values are set aside, corruption is invariably accepted as a way of life, and tolerated as a business necessity.

It is generally agreed that many of our social problems today are due to the seriously declining standards of ethical behavior not only on the part of public servants but also the community as a whole.

This is a national problem that contributes to the undesirable consequences, such as corruption, criminal breach of trust involving public servants and members of the corporate and professional classes; a far cry from the old days when “My word is my bond” was a bandage of honor.

Politicians, in particular, need to remind themselves that in seeking and occupying public office, they are party to an unwritten or spoken social contract that is implicit in its injunction to serve their constituents diligently, honestly and with integrity so that their well-being may be advanced and protected.

Voters have every right to expect their state and federal representatives to keep their side of the bargain by discharging their duties honestly.

By: Tunku Abdul Aziz bin Tunku Ibrahim

Note: The writer is a former special adviser to the United Nations secretary –general on ethics. He can be contacted at

tunkua@gmail.com

Taken from: New Sunday Times, 16/12/2007