INTEGRITY AND OPPORTUNISM IN POLITICAL ARENA
Integrity, by its very definition, means everything and is derived from the word ‘Integral’. It is the practice of showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and is a foundational moral virtue upon which good character is built. In short, it is a very personal reflection of what someone considers to be the backbone of one’s own moral fabric. As with any personality or professional trait lopsided through a lens of individuality it often depends on a person’s upbringing, social environment and life experiences as to what constitutes an act of integrity.
The dictionary definition of integrity teaches us how things should work in a perfect world, but in practice when the imperfections of the real world bites us, the meaning of integrity changes altogether differently for different people. It is, thus, not a one dimensional concept but a multifaceted approach that relates to the compliance to the rules and social expectations. Although, integrity is important at all levels and as an individual, it is a highly valued trait and perhaps the most important principle of leadership because not only it demands truthfulness and honesty, but also ethics and inclusiveness.
The leadership integrity is especially important for the politicians as they are chosen, appointed or elected to serve the society and to be able to serve, they are given power to make, execute or control policies. In the practice of exercising such political power, there remains a risk that these politicians get tempted to purposefully mislead the public on matters of great importance, undermine the democratic process, engage in electoral misconduct and use this power for their own personal gains rather than using consistently in the interest of public. To withstand this temptation, they need to act consistently with their values, principles, ethics and political integrity which is only possible when the process of election is free from the undue influence of vested interests, all stakeholders have equal influence in decision making and both the political decisions as well as power holders are subjected to scrutiny by public and institutional pillars.
The political integrity typically demands an appropriate combination of principled positions and political flexibility so to produce a morally consistent behaviour in specific circumstances. Thus, whereas it may be necessary to seize a political opportunity when it presents itself, it should ideally be seized with an appropriate motivation and on a principled basis. The frequent floor-crossing, turn-coating, switching parties and political horse trading in the legislature by the elected politicians and political parties are being done in an unprincipled manner with one single motive of being in power. The compromises that ought to be based only upon issues and political positions are being made on principles and ideology. The principled positions and supposed endorsement of various ideologies are frequently shifted and any supposed commitment to a set of ends is highly dubious and obviously opportunistic.
In politics, although it is necessary to insist on political principles at some times and on political unity at other times, a lot has changed over time. The political integrity that used to be measured on the values of convictions, ideas and principles is getting diluted and is being replaced by the political opportunism, reducing the scope of politics to visionless and barren pragmatism. These opportunists aim to utilize each political opportunity creatively to their advantage, try to create new initiatives and in the act of persuasion aim to convince people that their actions are principled as they are clever enough to understand that the total effect of a strategic political decision may not be known until years or even decades after it was taken.
Furthermore, integrity is not just about why a politician acts in a certain way, but also about who the politician is as also the meaning and purpose behind their political strivings. The nature of the cause the politician seeks to serve is ultimately a question of faith and the politician who is committed to such kind of cause and faith is a necessary requirement of admirable political conduct. However, as the present day politics has reduced to a gentle art of getting votes from the poor and the politicians are busy in diverting funds from the rich with a total mismatch between saying and doing, the importance of such faith is losing its credibility and integrity as a political trait seems to be diminishing. To restore this dwindling trait of political integrity the transparency and accountability needs to be institutionalized, the rules that pertain to full disclosure, freedom of information, public declaration of personal assets and open invitation to public scrutiny need to be put in place. The primary and most important prerequisite for such undertaking is political will, but how many are willing to endure even a part of it when no rewards are in sight remains an open question to be answered.
Dr. Pawan Suri
Chief Cardiologist
SGL SuperSpeciality Hospital
Jalandhar, Punjab
Email: psuricardio@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment