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THRESHOLD OF ACCEPTABILITY

Sep 11, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Many years ago, in a long journey across state lines in the U.S., a friend was forced to make a pit stop on a desolate strip of highway in order to urinate. He could not hold it any longer and since the nearest washroom facility was miles away he had to ‘go’.
Afterwards, his friends joked that if a photograph had been taken of him ‘going’ at the side of the highway, it would have immediately ended any chances he had of a political career.
The things we condone of our friends and our associates, we condemn of our politicians. We accept that our friends have feet of clay. We accept that they are human. But we expect our politicians to have toes of steel, to be superhuman and beyond mistakes.
Politicians do make mistakes. They are not perfect and providing that these mistakes are not deliberate, they should be excused. But the politicians in turn do not countenance mistakes on the part of others. They are brutal and savage. They hardly accept mistakes and expect everyone else to be picture perfect.
A politician is not expected to take a leak on the side of the road. But it is okay for a member of the public to do so. We expect higher standards of our elected officials than we do of ourselves. It is called double standards, one for ourselves and one for elected representatives.
Wrongdoing on the part of elected representatives should not be condoned. Innocent and harmless mistakes should
We are not angels and we should not pretend to be. The same thing we expect of others, we should demand of ourselves.
Unfortunately, politicians who beg for second chances are not keen on granting such chances to others. They are quick to pounce on the innocent mistakes of others and to prosecute and persecute them. This too is called double standards.
Governments are notorious for double standards. They go after persons perceived as being supporters of the opposition, yet they commit many of the same mistakes and find suitable excuses for their actions.
A threshold has to be established in terms of judging mistakes. You cannot destroy the lives and careers of persons, be they politicians or public servants, over innocent or innocuous mistakes. People will do wrong, sometimes deliberately, and there has to be a measure of what degree of wrongdoing will be condoned.
You can condone a calculation mistake, but not one big enough to become a scandal. If, for example, there was a miscalculation in the per capita square feet for the rental of a bond, this may be excused, but if the calculation was misrepresented so as to benefit someone, then this is no simple mistake. It becomes a deliberate act of deception for which there can be no acceptable thresholds.
There is a case right now in which a man is accused of committing a reporting fraud. This is not a case in which the person stole or deprived anyone of anything. The person simply reported something that was not true. It may have been an oversight or it may have been deliberate. No person or entity was robbed, but there is apparently a recorded fraud conviction.
Certainly, by today’s standards, such a person cannot be expected to be their country’s international face, and since we are in the mode of changing the face of government for the better, if such a conviction exists then the person cannot be expected to represent the country.
But should such an offence, if it was indeed committed, deny that person from ever holding public office? If no one was robbed or deprived of property, if the offence was merely a case of misreporting or even misrepresentation of a material fact, should this deny that person from ever working again with the government?
A threshold of acceptability for wrongdoing or mistakes must be established. People deserve a second chance, including politicians. But it depends on the degree of wrongdoing, whether it was intentional or was purely accidental. If you come to work late, one day, you don’t expect to be dismissed. But if you do so consistently, you should be dismissed.

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