Singapore’s Recent “High-Profile” Issues and Integrity!

The resignations of Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and Member of Parliament (MP) Cheng Li Hui are the latest in a series of controversies. Recently, Transport Minister S Iswaran was arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in relation to a graft probe. The arrest led the Deputy Prime Minister to state that the PAP will be upfront and transparent even when such developments are “potentially embarrassing or damaging” to the party or the Government.

Earlier this month, Parliament also debated the rental of bungalows along Ridout Road by the Law and Home Affairs Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. Investigations by CPIB and a separate review conducted by the Senior Minister on the matter found no wrongdoing by the ministers involved.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

Referring to the recent incidents, Singapore’s PM said no system can be “completely infallible”. In Malaysia, these issues are not that serious. More important is the length of a female’s dress, a man’s shorts or whether a woman is cutting a man’s hair.

Integrity is the core value for a nation, organisation or unit. Yet it is not so simple for two reasons:

(i) innate ability to rationalise behaviour: and

(ii) everyone defines integrity differently.

In (i), if you ask a school student whether or not it is right to cheat, most will say that cheating is wrong. Yet research suggests that many will admit to having engaged in some form of cheating. In hindsight, the students justify the choice as “not really cheating,” “no big deal,” or something that “everyone else does.” In other words, they rationalize their situational behaviour, and this way they can still consider themselves to be honest.

The reality is that all of us (and not just students) face integrity based choices on a regular basis. Do we tell customers about all of the warts on our products? Do we reveal everything to a prospective buyer during due diligence? Is it acceptable to hide certain aspects of our background in a résumé? What’s considered a legitimate expense on a business trip? How much of billable time is really devoted to a client? How honest should I be when giving feedback to my boss or subordinate? None of these situations have clear answers — and no corporate or party policy can cover every contingency. As a result, no matter what choice we make, we can convince ourselves that it was made with integrity.

In (ii) falsifying information to one person might be considered an acceptable business practice to another. This is further exacerbated by differences in culture — for example in some business cultures people are expected to openly do favours for each other, while in other cultures those favours would be considered bribes.

In the Bible, Psalm 15 outlines integrity – we need to value the right choices, which will lead to the right chances that then result in a change of the whole environment. It’s never easy with choice, chance and change.

References:

Why is integrity never easy, Ron Ashkenas, Harvard Business Review, 8 February 2011

Singapore PM Lee: PAP has to deal with recent “high-profile” issues rigorously, transparently for everybody to draw “right conclusions”, The Malay Mail, 18 July 2023