43"To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards."
Issue 43
Should a public official maintain the highest ethical and moral standards? Admittedly, high ethical and moral standards are significant indispensable character of a public official. However, in my view, keeping the highest ethical and moral standards is not only impractical but also unnecessary for every case.
First of all, the importance of high ethical and moral standards to a public official should be acknowledged. High ethical and moral standards together with other indispensable virtues, which are referred as a symbol of preeminent public officials in history, can to a large extent not only give confidence to the public but also establish prestige among the masses, which can lay down the solid foundation for an effective leadership and will weather crises and challenges. On the contrary, once a public official is revealed as a liar, public will certainly challenge his or her leadership since no one is willing to be guided by such an immoral leader. A perfect example involves the Watergate. When President Richard Nixon's dishonesty and improper operations in the reelection was revealed to the public, people in this nation doubted if Nixon was still reliable and qualified to be the US President. At last, Nixon was impeached and became the first one in American history to resign during his term of President. Nixon’s example shows that the public require a reliable leader who has high ethical and moral standards, honest at least.
Nevertheless, maintaining the highest ethical and moral standards is not only impractical but also unnecessary. This conclusion involves the definition of the effective leader. If we require our leaders to be saints in Bible, then the highest ethical and moral standards are need. However, common sense tells us, everyone has his or her own flaws and such requirement is only idealism. But if we define an effective leader as someone who can guide the public to a correct direction, by some special means in certain cases, then a high level of ethical and moral standards is enough and more realistic. In fact, in some case, excellent leaders are force to tell some white lies in order to keep a strong leadership and prevent from being in commotion, which should not be blamed. For instance, Chinese official holds some information about SARS from the public so as to keep the masses calm, which proved to be a wise action later on. In such examples, these leaders seem to contravene ethical and moral standards. However, we could consider these immoral actions as merely political means.
In sum, our public leaders should set high ethical and moral standards for their leading career, which would win public’s trust eventually. And still we have to remember that what we need is an effective leader, not a severe moralist.