Whither integrity?

For many of us — if we are sufficiently aware and informed, perhaps — integrity can be a scary thing because it brings with it a burden of demands that very few human beings can truly uphold or fulfil. There are issues of honesty, ethicalness, trust, strength of character, the ability to retain hold of morals and values even in the face of temptation or threats.

Integrity is a holistic approach to life that few of us can attain. It could require that we sometimes go against the wishes of parents, bosses, teachers or any authority figure in our lives and that is not an easy thing to do. Consider, for example, the woman student of Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. She worshipped at the feet of the great poet but then found herself in a situation where she was apparently being asked to barter sex for favours. Instead of acceding to his demands, instead of putting his actions down to that of the extreme behaviour of the angst-ridden artist which must be understood and indulged by we lesser mortals, instead of walking away even, she chose to stand up for her rights.

The case is a classic one of integrity coming up against someone with less stringent attention to the pesky issues of morality and decency. What is interesting about Walcott’s issue is the apparent belief that the failure to uphold integrity in one instance of one’s life is a reflection of one’s entire life and character.

Unless Walcott has consistently behaved in this manner and continues to do so to this day, then I don’t believe that anyone has the right to pass such lasting and harsh judgement on another human being.

I have had the occasion to say to many people over the years something I learnt from a mentor of mine — that every second of every day of our lives provides the opportunity for us to start over. No experience, behaviour or attitude defines us forever. If you have been guilty of poor judgment today or some time in your past, that is not forever emblazoned on your forehead, or, indeed, your soul. You can say to yourself ‘I have made a mistake, I will move on from that and do better next time’. Don’t hold it against yourself and don’t hold others’ experiences and behaviour against them. We all have the capacity to learn from our mistakes and to gain maturity in our view of the world.

How does all this gel with the recent brouhaha over the collapse of the Integrity Commission? Firstly, there is the issue of judging others — those who have not sinned etc. It is hardly likely that any society can throw up five citizens of impeccable, flawless character. We can only strive to find the best that we can right here, right now. If we can accept that then we have indeed reached a state of maturity as a country and people — but judging from the letters that came in to Newsday over the past weeks, not many of us can be accused of that quite yet.

It’s not that we don’t have to, as a society, hold these people to certain standards and levels of behaviour and honesty; it’s just that we need to be aware that every human being is flawed. It is, after all, one of the things that defines us as human beings — with one other being the capacity to forgive.

Fr Henry Charles has to deal with his conscience and his god when it comes to allegations of plagiarism. After all the hype about him it is sad that he, of all the others, apparently failed to remain true to the ideals of integrity.

As someone who has gone through five years of academia I am well aware of the great “sin” of plagiarism which has brought many a blossoming academic career to a halt. The fact that this is a recent series of incidents suggests that the well-reputed priest still has some integrity and maturity lessons to learn.

Lest it gets lost in the melee, it should be noted that three of the five members of the commission acted with definite integrity when they chose to hand in their resignations.

They saw an unconscionable situation and they acted. Reason enough to ask them back on the commission — they can bear to go through, again, all that furore and unasked for criticism.

The President has now responded to the issue in that dry, academic way of his. It is a thoughtful and professorial response but I am not sure that was what the country was looking for or even what it needs at this time.