The hindrance of ‘dirty hands’ and corrupt leadership in South Sudan

By Tito Tong John, Nairobi, Kenya

Friday, April 28, 2023 (PW) — “Be sure, gentlemen of the jury, that if I had attempted to participate in politics long ago, I should have died long ago and benefited neither you nor myself. Do not be angry with me for speaking the truth; no man who genuinely opposes you or any other crowd and prevents the occurrence of many unjust and illegal happenings in the city will survive.

A man who fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time.” I quote from these great philosophers’ Socrates and Plato’s Apology.

You should know that there are two ways to fight, one while abiding by the rules, the other by using force. The first approach is unique to Man; the second is that of beasts. But because the first method will not suffice in many cases, one must be prepared to resort to force. This is why a ruler needs to know how to conduct himself in the manner of a beast and a man.”

Successful political leaders in South Sudan have often been of questionable moral character. A persistent image in the political sphere is the active and powerful man willing to do whatever is strategically important in attaining his desired ends, even though doing so may weigh heavily on his conscience.

Is excellence in governmental leadership somehow incompatible with moral excellence? Does doing what one ought to do as a leader preclude the possibility of doing what one should do as a human being? “The hindrance of dirty hands” refers to the alleged necessity of compromising or abandoning moral principles to play the role of a government official effectively.

“Dirty hands” result when a leader encounters a conflict of duties or values and must choose between alternatives, none of which is entirely satisfactory. I quote Jean-Paul Sartre’s play Les Mains sells dirty hands, I need to explain the view to my countrymen who refuse to “dirty”.

I am thinking about this issue; it is important to distinguish self-serving opportunists from those who suffer corruption through their sincere efforts to govern well. Self-serving opportunists often rationalise their dubious measures to themselves through self-deceptive references to “the good of the whole,” claiming that group loyalty demands moral sacrifice or that “the end justifies the means.”

Egocentric opportunism, however, differs conceptually from dirty hands. The question before us is whether corruption in the political realm might arise due to the very nature of governance and morality.

Do rulers in South Sudan have more opportunities for temptation and therefore succumb more often than do private citizens? Or does good governance sometimes require the sacrifice of moral standards? When corrupt governmental agents are detected, society tends toward leniency in its “punishment” of them.

Might this leniency reflect a recognition of the hindrance of dirty hands, which leads people to forgive and forget so easily the crimes of their government?

“Realists” maintain that dirty hands are inescapable. In contrast, “idealists” hold that the so-called hindrance of dirty hands is merely an excuse adduced by those lacking the moral fibre to do what they should in governmental contexts.

Another great intellectual called Kenneth Winston sums up the opposition between these two positions: “To be a realist in politics is to believe that political life exceeds our capacities in certain crucial ways. Idealism is the view that human capacities are adequate to political life”. Then, maybe humanity has a moral sense of that notion.

The question is whether corruption, a fundamental transformation in one’s moral character and principles, is an inevitable consequence of one’s election to a governmental vocation. The word corruption derives from the Latin for “broken” and has a decidedly negative connotation, implying a loss of wholeness or integrity.

We tend to view corruption as regrettable for persons themselves, even apart from the dangers that their corruption might hold for others.

Because the sorts of transformations in character that government officials undergo may well be irreversible, “dirty hands” might more aptly be termed “indelibly inked hands.” For example, according to Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics, “Habits build character”.

Hence, a person who sacrifices his principles one time becomes more likely to do so again in the future. Agents who set aside what once were their moral views become progressively desensitised to the sorts of violations that formerly elicited their moral indignation.

Agents learn and become habituated to accepting what once seemed unacceptable, no longer feeling compelled to object to what once seemed objectionable. In clinging to some goal while neglecting, even temporarily, his moral beliefs and principles, the agent thus metamorphoses slowly into a corrupted image of his former self.

In conclusion, in this view, those who renounce moral standards and principles for the prudential interests of a group thereby transform themselves, albeit gradually, into persons who no longer embrace those standards and principles. Some might claim they know where to “draw the line,” insisting they will not sacrifice certain fundamental beliefs.

Still, if habits build character, even sacrificing less-fundamental beliefs renders one more likely to sacrifice other, perhaps more fundamental beliefs in the future. Corruption may be a long, irresistible journey down a very slippery.

The author, Tito Tong, holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. He is pursuing a Master of Business Administration in Human Resources specialisation in the same academic institution. Previously he worked with different radios institution under Catholic Radio Network in South Sudan and is currently an opinion writer at Dawn News Paper frequently. He can be reached via his email: <tongkhamisa446@gmail.com>

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