The Hindu Business Line : Representative of US ethos?

The only unanswered part of the question all these months about the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as the US Attorney General was when, and not whether, he would either quit or be eased out. In fact, Oliver Cromwell’s words as he dismissed the Rump Parliament of British Isles in 1653 would apply to Mr Gonzales many times over: “You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing lately ... Depart, I say; and let us be done with you. In the name of God, go!” For, here was a person whose style of running the Justice Department was a travesty of every known attribute of leadership.

He seemed to be totally out of depth in respect of the many complex responsibilities of the Department which stood for the Constitutionally guaranteed Bill of Rights and the rule of law. It is the unimpeachable professional integrity and undoubted honesty of purpose of the person presiding over the Department that translate them into a living reality. Both in the matter of the dismissal of nine US attorneys and the acquiescence, if not downright collusion, with the National Security Agency’s indiscriminate surveillance programmes, invading the privacy of citizens, the Department, under his leadership, functioned without any semblance of accountability and transparency.

Anyone who watched Mr Gonzales tendering evidence before the Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the murky goings-on during his tenure was left with a lasting impression of a deliberate attempt, by resorting to prevarication, to make scapegoats of his subordinates for his own omissions and commissions and pretend that he had no hand in whatever happened. This is the worst sin anyone in a leadership position can commit.

Trumped up charges

Two other choices of the current neocon-dominated US Administration had to make their exit in circumstances that reflected badly on their trustworthiness and competence. Mr I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who worked for sometime as the Chief of Staff of the VIce-President, Mr Dick Cheney, had to suffer the ignominy of being convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators probing the disclosure of former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity and sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. Although the prison term was promptly commuted by President Bush, it would remain on Mr Libby’s record.

Mr Paul Wolfowitz, former Deputy Secretary of Defence, was largely responsible for egging on the Bush Administration to unleash the “shock and awe” of the mighty military machine of the US to invade and subjugate Iraq on trumped up charges. Subsequently nominated to the presidency of the World Bank, Mr Wolfowitz had to leave in disgrace following the expose of his intervention to sanction a hefty pay rise to his girlfriend unmindful of the conflict of interest and lack of propriety.

Some writings appearing in the wake of the series of unsavoury episodes in the US Government, as also in the business world, tend to suggest that they are a reflection of the general ethos. For instance, a write-up in the latest Harvard Business Online, says that “the leadership lessons from the way Gonzales ran the Justice Department and his responses to questions of his integrity and veracity can be applied to many industries outside of politics (and) that he may be all too common a leader”.

It also mentions a survey in which only one-third of the employees in general feel that top management displays integrity and morality, adding that “When leaders lose credibility and trust, it makes people fearful and cautious, wondering what else they’re not being told.”

How nice it would be if the politicians and ministers in India too are put under the scanner the same way the public figures in the US are!

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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