3 rd AUBREY PHILLIPS LECTURE 2015, MONEAGUE, St ANN INTEGRITY: THE - - PDF document

Page 1 of 12 (PLEASE CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY) 3rd AUBREY PHILLIPS LECTURE 2015, MONEAGUE, St ANN “INTEGRITY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO JUDGEMENT, DEPTH OF CHARACTER AND QUALITY LEADERSHIP” NOVEMBER 11, 2015 PRESENTATION BY PROFESSOR TREVOR MUNROE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTEGRITY ACTION (PLEASE CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)

Salutations May I thank you for inviting me to be your guest speaker at this, the 3rd Aubrey Phillips Lecture 2015 and allow me to congratulate you for choosing as your central theme “INTEGRITY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO JUDGEMENT, DEPTH OF CHARACTER AND QUALITY LEADERSHIP” as I believe ‘integrity’ was a guiding principle of the man whom this lecture memorialises. I do not recall having met him personally, though his career and mine overlapped at the UWI, but from what I have gathered, mainly from his son, Peter, his was a life of integrity, that is, of honesty, probity, uprightness, of high moral standards – which is what the word integrity connotes. These were features of Aubrey Phillips’ career and work, during the time he spent at Mico ( sharing rooms, I understand, with his older class-mate, former Governor General , Sir Howard Cooke ), to the time in the 1940’s when he did his external degree at the University of London ; to the time when he completed his doctorate at the University of London , interestingly, when he was well into his 40s; to the time when he became Professor of Education at the University of the West Indies. This characteristic of integrity, good judgement and quality leadership is, as you

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would appreciate far better than me, this is what he brought with him as the first Principal of Moneague College in 1956 and, later on, as one of the earliest Presidents of the Jamaican Teacher’s Association in 1964. So you could hardly have chosen a better theme than ‘integrity’, given the character of the man Dr. Aubrey Phillips. But there is an additional reason why this theme of integrity is so timely. It is timely because so many are now acknowledging that integrity, honesty, probity and a strong moral ethic has to be a fundamental guiding principle if we are to pull ourselves, in Jamaica and elsewhere, out of the crises that are making life so very difficult for so many. It is therefore no accident that integrity is at the heart, indeed at the centre of the mission of National Integrity Action because we understood when we were established in 2011 that you can’t combat corruption unless, at the same time, you are building integrity. Similarly, ten years before we were formed, the Government of Jamaica in 2002, enunciated the principle of “integrity” as one of the standards

• f public life which should govern the activities of Ministers. And this is not just a principle

acknowledged by the public sector but as well, by the best in our private sector. In fact, one of

• ur most successful Jamaican businesses, Grace Kennedy, promotes integrity as one of its guiding

principles and even as we speak here today, the Parliament has before it and is now deliberating a bill entitled “The Integrity Commission Act” which acknowledges that “integrity… is the standard that safeguards a society from corruption…that persons exercising public functions can and sometimes do inflict immense, often irreparable damage to a country” by acting without concern for the public interest and without integrity.

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And this leads me to another reason why it is so important to highlight the principle of integrity. We have often heard the saying, ‘if the head of the stream is dirty so will the bottom be’ and the truth is that across too many parts of today’s world, it is the absence of integrity which is making “the head of the stream dirty” and it is this which is contributing to making the lives of so many tens of millions of people so hard while at the same time facilitating the enrichment of the few. This is not an exaggeration; seven years ago, in 2008/9, a financial crisis engulfed the global economy, brought about massive losses of income, of jobs, of wages and of wealth, including 5.5 million jobs and 360 billion dollars in wages in the United States alone. We in Jamaica, like every country around the world, also experienced the impact and are still feeling the consequences of that global crisis, contributing to almost 40 % of young people in our county not being able to find decent work. And what was a main cause of this continuing devastation – lack

• f integrity amongst leaders in the financial system, leading to decisions motivated by selfishness

and greed, revealing flawed characters and dysfunctional leadership. In fact, the US Government Commission of Enquiry into the Financial Crisis, after looking at all the evidence, actually concluded that a main cause of the crisis was “systemic breakdown in accountability and ethics”. In other words greed, fraud and corruption. Please remember that here we are taking about lack of integrity, not so much in politics but at the pinnacle of the private sector, at the very top some of the most renowned and reputable banks and financial institutions, so much so that up until the end of October 2015 The US Security and Exchange Commission imposed almost US$4 billion in penalties for misconduct on companies like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Securities, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Citigroup,

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Deutsche Bank among others. So there can be little doubt that the head of the integrity stream in private sector financial institutions was dirty with disastrous consequences. What about the integrity stream in politics? In the last two months alone, what have we seen? Look across the world---Corrupt practices have led to the resignation and corruption charges against the President of Guatemala, against Donald Sang, the former Head of Government in Hong Kong, against the former oil Minister in Nigeria; corruption charges have led to the suspension of 7 of 12 High Court Judges in Ghana, the resignation of the entire Government in Egypt and the indictment of the Prime Minister in Romania. Going further back, just 4 years ago, in England 4 Members of Parliament and 2 Members of the House of Lords were jailed in 2011 for lying about the use of Parliamentary allowances and expenses; in the US 4 Members of Congress have been sent to prison since 2009 for corruption. And just in case you’re thinking that lack of integrity is confined to bankers and politicians, what about the Head of the stream in football and in track athletics? In football fourteen leaders of FIFA have been charged, including Jack Warner one of the FIFA Executives from Trinidad and

• Tobago. The President for seventeen years of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has now been suspended and is

also facing charges from Swiss and American prosecutors. Then there is the world of track athletics in which Jamaica remains a colossus. Just a few days ago the President, for sixteen years,

• f the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), Lamine Diack, was placed under

investigation by French police following allegations that Russian athletes were protected after

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failing drug tests. There is no question that IAAF, like FIFA, is facing the worst crisis in its entire

• history. And then to cap it all, the former President of the UN General Assembly in 2013/14, John

Ashe from Antigua / Barbuda, is before the courts in the US accused of taking $ 1. 3 million in bribes from a Chinese business tycoon. So, in far too many places, we are seeing that lack of integrity and leaders looking out for themselves are guiding too much of the world of finance,

• f politics and of sport. This is leading to a dangerous situation where, for example, a 2013 survey
• f 107 countries, including Jamaica, found that in most countries the people are convinced that

government, political parties and even elections are not serving their interest, the public interest but rather the private interest of a chosen few. Jamaica is of course not exempt from this trend, from this deficit of integrity. Quite apart from what we the citizens observe, too many official reports reveal complete disregard among too many leaders for doing the right thing, for being examples of quality leadership. Take the investigation report last year of the Office of the Contractor General into contract awards in the Hanover Parish Council. The report revealed that the chief citizen of the Parish, the Mayor was, in effect, handing out contracts left, right and centre, in defiance of proper procedure, to any and every member of her family that she could find. Then there is the report of the Electoral Office of Jamaica on the last General election of 2011. This report revealed that eighty (80) of the one hundred and fifty (150) candidates, forty five (45) from the JLP and seventeen (17), from the PNP have failed to file returns within 6 weeks of the

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election as the Representation of the Peoples Act requires and have yet to file almost 4 years after the last election. And many of these law-breakers are being endorsed to run as candidates again in the forthcoming elections!! We should insist that the leaders of the PNP and of the JLP reject such persons as candidates in the forthcoming elections until they comply with law. If the Head of the stream is dirty what about the bottom? Prior to that same election in 2011 a colleague at the University of the West Indies, Dr. Herbert Gayle, did a snap shot study across twelve parishes and 27 constituencies. He found that 59% of voter interviewed were involved in vote buying and vote selling. This, as you know, is bribery, plain and simple, even if it is regrettably becoming part of the ‘culture’, and it is against the law in almost every democracy in the world including Jamaica. The statistic also means, by the way, 41% of those interviewed refused. In effect they said neither me nor my vote is for sale. I was therefore amazed at a report in the Daily Observer, Tuesday, November 10, under the Headline “Nyam dem out and vote dem out!!” The report in part said that the Leader of the JLP told JLP supporters “tek the money! Tek the money, a sey to the youth dem where dem a go try to buy unu out, I say to you tek the money and ask for more!” Is this encouraging integrity or is it endorsing corruption in both the buyers and the sellers of votes? Such encouragement to take a bribe is obviously unacceptable, wrong and must be condemned. Similarly, any attempts to buy votes, by the PNP, or by anyone else is wrong, unacceptable and

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must be condemned. Both should face the full force of the law--$20 to $80,000 fine and / or imprisonment for not less than 3 years nor more than 5 years It is this kind of unacceptable behaviour, which makes your call, in the theme of this lecture, for integrity, good judgement, depth of character and quality leadership both so timely and so

• urgent. And let us be clear, the global stream in finance, in politics and in sport was not always

as dirty as it now appears. It seems to me that in days gone by, while there were many evils to combat and many wrongs to make right, there were more leaders like Aubrey Phillips’, more persons of integrity willing to take a stand for what is right and to take decisions based on principle and not just on expediency. Take two examples. On the global stage, outside of Jamaica, look at the example of Nelson Mandela, born in 1918, just one year before Aubrey Phillips. In 1990, at the height of the Armed Struggle by the ANC and black Africans against apartheid, Mandela could have chosen the popular course, to continue the war against white minority rule. But instead, with much resistance and disagreement from his closest colleagues, he chose to negotiate with the leadership of the white minority, as a means to end apartheid with as little bloodshed and loss of life as possible. Right here in Jamaica take another example, that of Norman Washington Manley, one of our National Heroes and one for whom Aubrey Phillips had the greatest admiration. In 1961, after

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winning the election in 1959, Norman Manley nevertheless chose to go the people again in a referendum for them, not him and other politicians, to decide whether to remain in the West Indies Federation or to leave it. Manley need not have done so; no law nor convention required him to. But in Manley’s mind, despite some of his colleagues’ disagreement with him, principle required that he call a referendum which, as you know, he lost. This is what good character and quality leadership sometimes requires, standing up for what is right even when it may cost you personally, politically or otherwise. I do not mean to suggest for one moment that there is not integrity in the current generation. Look at Malala the teenager in Pakistan who stood up for the right of young women to have an education, who was shot and almost killed as a result but who nevertheless displayed great depth

• f character in not backing down from a principle. She became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize

winner ever and today young women are entitled under law to have an education, just like our young girls here in Jamaica. Take our own Usain Bolt who, in the midst of so much cheating, taking of prohibited drugs and substances, he has remained true to the principle of honesty and probity , despite what must have been great temptation, especially when some of his greatest rivals , like Justin Gatlin, were leaving the straight and narrow path and taking drugs. Remember that in the first World Championships in 2001 in which he competed, Bolt actually failed to qualify. How much he would have had to resist the temptation to abandon integrity and take performance enhancing drugs

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to ensure that next time he would be in the finals. And that is what all good leaders have to do at some point, resist temptation to take the easy road, exercise sound judgement, display the strength of character which comes from the principle of integrity. And these qualities remain alive, if too often hidden, particularly amongst our young people. Recently, I have had the honour and privilege of participating in the Governor General’s Youth County Consultative Conferences and I have been greatly encouraged by the aspirations to integrity which the Head Boys and Head Girls, the Prefects and other leaders in our high schools and communities across the country displayed, in Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey. So there is much basis for hope. But this hope has to be based on reality. And the reality is that in today’s Jamaica, in today’s global environment integrity as a general principle and standard of conduct does not come naturally. Put another way, many of you must have had the experience

• f trying to teach, to inculcate in our youngsters the precept that “crime does not pay”, “that

honesty is the best policy”. But today that message does not fall on fertile soil; that message falls

• n rocky ground when in so many cases which every youngster can see, crime does seem to pay

and dishonesty seems rewarded by success. So for us to teach that crime does not pay and honesty is the best policy, we have to do at least three things:

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One, ensure that our justice system, our investigators, our prosecutors and our judges make an example of the criminals by putting them away for a long time, rather than make them get off “scotch free”. Two, work to bring about an economy which provides opportunity for all who have ambition, where honest and smart work is rewarded by good pay and decent conditions of life; Three, In addition to making our justice system more effective and our economy more equitable, we have to transform our institutions of socialisation to ensure that the value of integrity is more widely disseminated to the younger generation. This has long been recognised has it not? In fact the 2004 Task Force Report on Educational Reform acknowledged a break down in social behaviour in educational institutions and recommended “a citizenship education programme which would focus on values and attitudes, character education, patriotism and service”. Such character education, I suggest, should be built around a number of elements:  Ethics – by this I mean a deep and practical understanding of the difference between right and wrong; of how to resolve ethical dilemmas; to make choices between my immediate self-interest and the wider public interest; to recognise and stand against injustice and to uphold integrity and fair play. I ask you to recall the remark of Theodore Roosevelt: ‘ To educate a person in mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society’ .

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 Mindfulness – by this I mean a sense of self-awareness, knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, recognising when one is going off the straight and narrow, being able to self- correct and to self-manage, to listen to share, to have compassion.  Resilience – to practise perseverance, tenacity, self-discipline, the ability to come back from setbacks; to persist in the face of push-back. It was Nelson Mandela who said:’ the greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall’.  Courage – the ability to stand up for what is right, to subordinate fear, to resist peer pressure when peer pressure defends wrongs and not rights  Leadership – the ability to persuade, influence, guide others to a higher level as much by your words as by your deeds, by what you practice as by what you preach, to empathize with, connect with, never to disrespect followership even when engaged in wrongs but to engage and correct that which is negative with patience and understanding.  Curiosity – willingness to probe beneath the surface of what exists, to learn at all times from experience, not to be content with received wisdom, to be open-minded towards the new and the positive

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Ten years later, despite some progress, we are still falling far short of inculcating these elements

• f character education, of building all round integrity, of what is required at the level of

parenting, religious instruction and community reorientation. In this context allow me to make

• ne recommendation from our experience in National Integrity Action. We engaged in a pilot

programme of training Integrity Ambassadors and establishing Integrity Clubs in three high schools in Kingston. We developed a manual to train trainers from this exercise. I would like to suggest that Moneague College take the lead in endeavouring to replicate, no doubt with modifications to suit your particular context, this programme. Just think of what a contribution could be made to building integrity the ultimate guide to good judgement, depth of character and quality leadership, if in each of our teacher training colleges, and beyond that in tertiary institutions as well as at other levels in the educational system, organised clusters of integrity could be established and sustained. Would this not begin to make a big difference in cleaning the stream so soiled by lack of integrity? I believe we can and should make this effort to build what would become a social movement for

• integrity. Indeed we have little choice if our country is to halt the slide into greater violence,

disorder and criminality, underlying which is that anti-social ethic of me first, me second, me third and forget about being your brother’s keeper. Aubrey Phillips’ generation undertook a similar awesome task in building a sense of nationhood, indeed a national movement embracing communities across the length and breadth of Jamaica. In the same way that they did, so can we in perhaps more difficult and challenging circumstances but I truly believe that ‘there is nothing wrong with Jamaica that cannot be fixed by what is right with Jamaica.’