COMMENT | Behind every successful nation there are great leaders with intellectual honesty and sincerity. Leaders who pursue the truth, keeping their word, making decisions based on facts and formulating policies for the benefit of their electorate. As leaders, they always think of their country first and avoid placing their personal needs above others.

Thomas Jefferson famously said that “Knowledge is power” but what happens when power is misused and does not serve the people’s interest? What is the cost to the rakyat and country? This is why intellectual honesty and sincerity must be practised by leaders. And to do so, they must have integrity.

Integrity has become an important concept for the understanding and practice of good governance. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching for the benefit of the organisation and people. It resides deep within us and is something you either have or you don’t – there’s no middle ground.

So how do we rate integrity? How is it linked to our personal values and the position we hold in society? We have seen politicians swindle billions of ringgits by transferring public funds to their private accounts. We have the case of an enforcement officer arrested for allegedly soliciting a RM15,000 bribe to not act against an offender. People entrusted with a noble responsibility that have chosen to abuse it for their personal gain.

On the other hand, we have the case of a Japanese driver who ...