We were discussing local crime. I said it was close to impossible to have corrupt government without corrupt citizens. My friend concurred, reluctantly. But just when I thought our war of words had been won, and lowered my guard, he squeezed off one last blast: “When you speak of complicit citizens, I trust you include yourself? I mean, there are people who associate your journalism with vendettas disguised as exposés.”
I winced. I had not counted him among our poorly educated citizens whose main preoccupation is the singer, seldom his song. I countered: “Are you suggesting less than honorable motivations as my reason for exposing government ministers and other public officials on the take? Does it rattle your cage when I write about permanent secretaries that stubbornly refuse to supply the Audit Director with documents repeatedly requested? Would you be less concerned about my professionalism if I turned a blind eye to domestic violence, police brutality, child molestation, rape and so on?”
My friend’s smile brought to mind African crocodiles basking open-mouthed in the sun. “I was just kidding,” he said. “Man, do you have to take everything so seriously.”
The discombobulating truth is we admire successful criminals and secretly applaud when they get away with their illegal activities, I dare to say, including murder. We get a vicarious charge upon learning how a dope dealer triumphed over some big-name police prosecutor, thanks to his high-powered and expensive legal team. Or when a rape victim is pressured into dropping sexual assault charges against prominent citizens.
There was jubilation in some quarters when a hopped-up mob attacked participants in a political rally before inflicting serious damage on several business houses in and around William Peter Boulevard, at a cost of untold millions of dollars—all without a single arrest or an official inquiry. Perhaps investigative journalism in our country is largely unappreciated because it is reflective of our complicit selves, an uncomfortable reminder that if we are not part of the solution we automatically become contributors to the problem. With minds warped after countless years of looking the other way, we now consider it better to exist in a country without mirrors than to risk facing the inescapable truth: We are victims of our own vices!
(Publisher’s Note: The preceding op-ed first appeared in the 29 August 1987 edition of The STAR)
