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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on April 11 - April 17, 2016.

 

IN recent times, ethical questions involving institutions that are presumably scrupulous have become explosive controversies with such frequency that we may be excused for thinking that bending the rules has become a norm in the present age.

This is happening both at the national and international levels and has not spared even the standard bearers of morality, such as religious orders, and august watchdog bodies, including financial regulators.

We need only look at very recent examples of questionable conduct in these areas, such as the 1Malaysia Development Bhd debacle with its multiple dimensions and the flood of revelations emerging from the Panama Papers, for this impression to be confirmed. Nevertheless, there is a real danger that we may develop an unhelpful cynicism towards regulatory processes and compliance protocols that can become a serious obstacle to engaging in a genuine shift towards greater public integrity.

Yes, it is important to recognise that the erosion of ethical behaviour has become a pervasive problem in the current era, where intensifying competition, the polarisation of wealth, breakdown of social institutions and social and economic churn have become symptoms of a world at odds with itself.

That said, it is possible that by fixating on examples of misfeasance in financial institutions, government entities, professional organisations, oversight bodies and social institutions, we may convince ourselves that moral decline has reached an epic scale in society today.

However, this view ignores the influence of our subjective perception on what we believe is reality. The fallout from the Panama Papers, for example, would encourage the perception that tax avoidance is a universal phenomenon.

Tax avoidance is indeed a huge problem, but it may not be correct to assume that it is routine in the corporate world.

Writing on the issue in The Drum, an online forum of the Australian Broadcasting Corp, Tim Dunlop notes that “not everyone who avoids tax is a thief engaging in illegal activity”. But what the Panama Papers show is that “we have created a two-tier global economy, sometimes tacitly and sometimes explicitly supported by governments throughout the world, that has allowed a tiny elite to exempt themselves from the rules the rest of us are forced to play by”.

Referring to recent information released by the Australian Tax Office, Dunlop points out that one-third of big Australian companies paid zero tax. While this indicates the size of the problem, it helps to maintain perspective if we can acknowledge that the other two-thirds of companies, or a majority, are not doing that.

But integrity issues can take many forms. More than one religious organisation has been accused of covering up shocking immorality among its ranks, academic institutions have come under the spotlight for fraud, funding scandals and more, cheating in sports reveals its deep roots recurrently and questions about judicial independence are too persistent to ignore. And that barely scratches the surface of integrity issues that are gnawing at the foundations of key institutions in our society.

Cutting closer to the bone, the mass media has much to answer about bias, self-censorship and audience manipulation, among other things. So too, the medical industry, pharmaceutical giants, big tobacco and other colossal global businesses all have conscience calls to answer about their headlong pursuit of profit above all else.

With principled behaviour coming under assault on so many fronts, it is tempting to succumb to the groupthink that since everyone else seems to be looking the other way, there is not much point in maintaining an ethical culture in our daily lives — professionally, in national affairs or any given field that we are engaged in.

However, this line of thinking would be disastrous , to say the least. While cheating may even become a norm in some situations, it can possibly bring about a collapse in public trust in the institutions involved, as history has shown time and again. The Libor rate-rigging scandal that rocked the financial world in 2012 is a prime example of the damage that can result from such dishonesty.

While it may often appear that wrongdoers are getting away with it all the time, it may be a fallacy to assume that they have the upper hand because our society, for whatever reason, condones their conduct, especially if they are in positions of authority. Granted that there may be an ebb and swell in social mores over a period of time, but in the main, there is a noticeable upsurge in activism against corruption and abuse of power, in the form of new watchdog groups leading the way to a culture of greater accountability.

Furthermore, it may be a misperception to assume that unethical conduct is the default mode for the average person or institution, as the ratio of Australian corporate tax dodgers to tax payers in the example cited above shows.

Although it may be virtually impossible to be ethically perfect in all situations at all times, we should not be surprised to find that in any given circumstance, one may be inclined to do what is right because of an innate sense of justice, fear of censure, moral values or any other motivation that may override the temptation to gain an unfair advantage.

Codes of conduct and protocols for observing fiduciary duties do have a role in guiding gatekeepers in the discharge of their responsibilities, but they can only go so far. In the end, each person in a position of trust must listen to that small inner voice that tells him that he has stepped into a moral no man’s land.


R B Bhattacharjee is associate editor at The Edge Malaysia

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