A front-page article in Monday's New York <i>Times</i> quotes
Prayuth Chan-ocha, the general who currently rules Thailand, and who
declared a net worth of $4 million (nearly half in cash) on an
annual army salary of $40,000, as saying in a televised speech, "Do
not judge people based on your perceptions."<br>
<br>
This seems laughable but, unfortunately, it is not. Every day in the
United States hundreds, if not thousands, of local government
officials say that some situation only presents the appearance of
impropriety. <i>Only</i> the appearance, upon which the public is
not supposed to base its perceptions.<br>
<br>
But what else is there to base one's perceptions on? Is each of us
supposed to investigate each matter on our own and come to a more
responsible conclusion? And how can anyone investigate motives, know
what any government official was really thinking? And does this even
matter?<br>
<br>
We can judge only based on our perceptions. When an official votes
to give a contract to her brother, we may conclude that she was
giving personal preference to her brother. When an official accepts
a trip to a conference in Hawaii from someone seeking a contract or
grant from the government, we may conclude that the official feels
an obligation to give that individual or company something in
return. When an official keeps a transaction secret, we may conclude
that he is hiding something. As another Thai ruler is famous for
saying, at least in a famous musical, Et cetera, et cetera, et
cetera.<br>
<br>
Appearance is not <i>only;</i> appearance is all the public has,
especially when the public has no independent, well-funded,
well-toothed government ethics program with a monopoly on
interpreting and enforcing a comprehensive ethics code. Since very
few of these programs exist at any level of government, government
officials continue to have to insist that appearance doesn't matter,
that the public must ignore the man behind the curtain, that is, the
man who chose not to provide the public with an effective government
ethics program.<br>
<br>
The next time you hear a government official say there's <i>only</i> an
appearance of impropriety, you should say that all you see is someone trying to
convince people that appearance is not all the public has to go by, that is,
someone trying to protect himself by misrepresenting reality to the
public he is supposed to be representing. Ask the official why the government lacks a government ethics program that meets the best practices set forth in City Ethics' model code and other publications.<br>
<br />
Robert Wechsler<br />
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br />