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When we don't know who or what to believe any more

Going through my morning papers last Friday, I read about a doctor who allegedly sold fake vaccination certificates.

Another report was of government officials of a certain department who allegedly committed criminal breach of trust in the last two years.

Also, a construction company manager allegedly bribed a civil servant, an enforcement officer at a local authority allegedly solicited bribes from a company and three police officers allegedly extorted money from a car salesman in Selangor.

Similar stories were published in the preceding days and weeks, but last Friday's stories alone suffice to pose the question — is integrity dead in our country?

I can do no better than quote business guru and author of Swim with the Sharks, Harvey Mackay, who said: "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters."

The tragedy is, over the last few years, I get the sense that (for some people, it seems) there is no shame in being convicted of an offence involving breach of integrity — whether it's theft, fraud, embezzlement, bribery or other corrupt practices.

Worse, some public figures seem to wear their convictions as a badge of pride.

There are three aspects of integrity — internal, external and integrated.

Internal integrity is about doing the right thing even when no one is looking.

External integrity is about "walking the talk". One of the "biggest killers" of external integrity is when people (including leaders) say one thing but do the opposite.

Integrated (or whole integrity) is about having both the traits. There are also people who seemingly lead exemplary lives but actually have a secret personal life devoid of integrity — a Jekyll and Hyde personality.

In his piece Death of Integrity, Larry Ackerman (leading authority on organisational and personal identity) stated: "When you betray the truth, you betray yourself. When you diminish the truth, you diminish yourself. When you ignore the truth, you ignore yourself."

Ackerman added that when you start justifying your "lies, exaggeration and deceit" on the grounds of "some high-minded moral imperatives", you signal the death of your own integrity, because "integrity is fuelled by truth, no more, no less. When truth is gone, integrity dies. And when that happens, part of you also dies".

Commenting on the same subject, columnist Davy Crockett III wrote: "Dishonesty is not a new phenomenon, but the prevalence of such conduct on so many levels, and the acceptance of it, is a definite indication of the death of integrity."

For many people from all walks of life, the need to be "scrupulously honest in all dealings" does not seem to matter any more.

As a result of this "pervasive untruthfulness", Crockett said, confidence in our governing institutions is lost, and in its place, a sense of scepticism envelops the nation.

Most people simply do not know what or who to believe any more. That, to my mind, is exactly what is happening here now.

A week ago, an old friend sent me a video clip of an African political leader delivering a speech at a forum in his country.

He was telling the story of an African politician who visited his counterpart in Malaysia. This Malaysian politician one day took his African visitor to his beautiful mansion for dinner.

When the African visitor asked his host where he got all the money to build his magnificient home, the Malaysian politician pointed to an expressway not too far from his home and told his African visitor: "Ten per cent of that came here" (as he pointed to his house).

Years later, when the same Malaysian politician visited his African counterpart and was taken by his friend to his own place for dinner, he was astonished to see the host's magnificent palace.

When he asked his African host where he got the money to build such a fine palace, the latter pointed to a spot not too far away, but there was nothing there — no road, no highway.

With a smile, the African politician told his Malaysian guest: "100 per cent of that came here."

You must have heard variations of this story before. The story could be just a joke. But the death of integrity is not.


The writer was a federal counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers and visiting professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He is now a full-time consultant, trainer and author

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times

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