The political season is upon us. I urge us to be vigilant in assessing the persons vying for office. The issue of integrity is not one to be treated lightly. It should be a basic requirement of anyone seeking to lead our people. It matters to me. I hope it matters to you. As a reminder of the importance of this issue, I have reprinted portions of two prior editorials on the matter of integrity.
Integrity: adherence to moral principles; honesty (Collins Dictionary of the English Language). Synonyms for integrity include: uprightness, probity, honour, good character, virtue, decency, fairness, truthfulness, trustworthiness and sincerity.
Integrity is one of the buzz words often used by persons aspiring for some position of leadership – whether in politics, public service or an organization. Leaders tend to tout themselves as persons of integrity and this is something the general public expects of them. Unfortunately, we are sometimes disappointed when leaders do not live up to our expectations. In politics, for example, we have seen several examples of questionable integrity. Over the years there has been the switching of political allegiances, cronyism, criminal charges and convictions for criminal activity. All factors affecting the level of trust we place in our leaders.
Our concerns, however, about the integrity of leaders tend to stop at their public life. If we were to closely examine how leaders conduct their personal and social affairs there may be even more cause for concern. Many may disagree with the need to do this and ask what does that have to do with their leadership capacity. To my mind, a person of true integrity must demonstrate integrity in all aspects of their lives, not only the portion that is on public display. If a person lacks integrity in his or her personal life this may be a good indicator of the type of leadership we should expect from them.
I do not often agree with the approach of Americans on many issues, however, I do think they were absolutely right when they used to subject anyone vying for office to excruciating scrutiny, but they seem to have deviated from this. Some may think this is too high a standard and unreasonable. “Who will make the grade?” some may ask. It is probably for this reason that we seem to have low expectations and only demand integrity from our leaders in matters that directly affect us. We are not alone in this. If we look across the region we will see that by and large, the electorate seems to have a similar approach. As a result, the Caribbean is overflowing with examples of political leaders who have embarrassed themselves, their families and their parties by their inappropriate personal conduct, with impunity.
We must demand integrity in all areas from our leaders. Maybe then Caribbean leaders will be less concerned about establishing dynasties, less egocentric and less dictatorial; and more concerned about the wellbeing of the people of the Caribbean. I am convinced that our region could progress exponentially were it not for our dysfunctional political systems and power-hungry leaders, many of whom must undo everything their predecessors did regardless of the merit, refuse to let go the reigns even when everything around them is crumbling, and either demit office kicking and screaming or out cold in a casket.
Rather than demanding integrity and reflecting that in the way that we vote, what seems to be the norm is mistrust of all political leaders and aspiring politicians. There is a mistrust of their motives, campaign pledges, agendas and sincerity. In fact, when the words “politician” and “integrity” are used in the same sentence, it often results in a few snickers if not open laughter. An election, therefore, boils down to a choice between “the devil and the deep blue sea” as the old folks would say. It appears to be literally a choice based on which of the untrustworthy can we live with for the next five years.
Isn’t it time that the people in the region in general and Anguilla, in particular, stop encouraging our leaders in their political tactics and shenanigans? We have a very powerful tool. It is called a vote. We can use it in a way that demonstrates that we are maturing into a region or nation that requires a higher standard from those in public office. We can use it to raise political debate from baseless guttural utterances to ventilation of issues that affect our daily lives such as employment, education and health care. We can use it to demand integrity.
Unfortunately, right here in the Caribbean and in our own island it seems integrity matters little. How many of us care how our political leaders conduct themselves in public office or private life so long as there is money is our pockets? If our economy was thriving would anyone care about the actions of our leaders? To most, none of it matters. How many political parties or their supporters would call an elected member to account unless that person’s actions have the potential to undermine the party itself? Since I have not seen anything that would suggest otherwise, in my view it appears that once the stronghold or power of a party is not undermined, political parties and supporters could care less about the conduct of their elected members.
Given what we have seen around the region and in our own backyard during at least the past decade, I would say we have a serious problem. The only times we seem to care about integrity in public office is when:
• We are negatively impacted by the financial situation; or
• When the persons in Government are not members of the political party we support.
We the voters have therefore sent a loud message to our political leaders that integrity does not matter. The Caribbean political landscape is therefore rife with corruption, nepotism, immoral and inappropriate personal conduct, and the list goes on. The reputation of our countries is impacting on the way in which we are treated in the global arena.
I firmly believe in the saying that the people get the Government they deserve. It is our duty to demand more of our leaders. It is our duty to hold them accountable for their actions and conduct in office. The power is literally in our hands to ensure integrity in public office on the part of those we elect. If by our actions and by our vote, we insist on integrity, integrity is what we will get. But we must first answer the question for ourselves: does integrity really matter?
