71. Integrity is more important than what becomes publicly known
The magnitude of violations of integrity by SPs is greater than is publicly known. Violations can also take place behind closed doors or even remain completely undiscovered.This makes integrity all the more important, because the former situation lacks external corrective forces, and the latter both external and internal corrective forces. SPs should not allow themselves to think that they can keep their violations quiet: that was what the SPs who were discredited for violations thought too.
The people, parties, and organizations who have fallen into disrepute provide an indication of the importance of integrity, and there are a good many of them. Even if we narrow it down to presidents of various countries discredited for violations of human rights, war crimes, withholding relevant information from congress, and inadmissible private behavior, we already find large numbers. Czech prime minister Petr Nečas, initially nicknamed “Mr Clean Hands”, stepped down when his chief of staff was arrested, under suspicion of having used the military security service to spy on Nečas’s estranged wife, thereby making inappropriate use of the service. She was also suspected of involvement in bribing members of parliament. There was media speculation about a romantic relationship between Nečas and his chief of staff, which might have been behind these acts. Nečas denied knowledge of the illegal spying and bribery but the scandal made his position untenable. He resigned as prime minister and party chairman. Shortly afterwards Nečas married his former chief of staff, supporting speculation over their secret love affair.407 This and other incidents show (1) that integrity standards apply, (2) what those standards are, (3) that there are SPs who violate these standards, (4) that it is possible to violate the standards, (5) that the transgressions became publicly known, (6) that others censure this behavior, and (7) that the transgressions have negative consequences.
The lesson here is clear. SPs who do not take integrity to heart run the risk of ending their terms of office and leaving under a cloud. There is more to be said about the volume of incidents, as more incidents take place than become publicly known.
Firstly not all transgressions become publicly known because they remain behind closed doors. Others may find out but do not make it known in public because, for example, they are in league with the offender, acting as partners in crime, because they are dependent on one another, or in one another’s grasp, do not feel responsible for making the transgression known, or want to spare themselves the trouble and discredit. There can therefore only be more transgressions than become publicly known. This makes the problem and the importance of integrity all the greater, not only because transgressions happen more often than outsiders see, but also because there is no public view of them, no external accountability, and so no possible sanctions to follow.
Secondly, not all transgressions become publicly known because they do not even become known behind closed doors. Culprits can keep their transgressions secret, so more transgressions must take place than is known internally or externally. This makes the problem and importance of integrity all the greater, because transgressions take place more often than others see, and there is no enforcement or correction of these unnoticed transgressions.
In short, the problem of integrity is greater than the extent of violations known externally and internally. For SPs this can be a reassuring thought, if they think they can keep their transgressions entirely secret or behind closed doors. However, this can be misleading. The SPs discredited probably also thought they could keep their violations hidden (otherwise they would not have committed them), and that turned out to be wrong.