‘Johnny come lately’ on whistle-blowing

One of the greatest movies to ever come out of Hollywood is the 1990 crime film “GoodFellas”. Don’t just take my word for it; the US library of congress has it preserved in the National Film registry. For the uninitiated, the movie tells the story of an Irish-American member of the Luchesse Mafia family based in East New York, Brooklyn. Henry Hill, the main protagonist of the film, grew up idolising the mafia lifestyle and he got to live his dream. In 1955, he quit school and joined the Luchesse crime empire at the tender age of thirteen! Based on a true story, the movie puts paid on the notion that “crime does not pay”.In a career spanning 25 years, Henry Hill makes lots of money, ends up in jail a couple of times, loses all his money and is finally expelled from the Luchesse crime family business empire. With his back against the wall, he signs a pact with the devil. He decided to break his ‘omerta’ or code of silence in exchange for protection from the FBI. He became a ‘snitch’ or ‘rat’ as those that tell on fellow criminals are referred to.Henry Hill was not the first turncoat Mafioso that cooperated with the authorities to save his own skin. The tradition goes back a full century.American court records show that in 1890, Charles Matranga better known as ‘Millionaire Charlie’, the boss of the New Orleans Mafia, testified in open court against the leadership of a rival underworld organization responsible for seriously wounding his brother.What makes Henry Hill’s case exceptional is that his life’s story is documented in Nicholas Pileggi’s non-fictional book “wise guys”. It is this book that inspired Martin Scorsese to make the film “GoodFellas”.Right from childhood, opinion remains divided on whistleblowers. Parents may applaud a child who reports wrongdoing but that same child will be shunned by other children.The line between doing the moral good and pursuing self preservation gets seriously blurred when individuals are faced with a situation requiring them to tell on their peers. More often than not, it becomes a moral or ethical dilemma. To tell or not to tell!In 2002, Time magazine bestowed their coveted title of ‘Person of the year’ jointly to three women who, in the face of adversity, stood up against huge organisations to expose internal wrongdoing. The three women were Sherron Watkins of ENRON, Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom and Coleen Rowley of the FBI.The depth of the exposés on ENRON and WorldCom’s financially fraudulent dealings led to their eventual filing for bankruptcy, while the FBI had a major shakeup as a result of Coleen Rowley’s testimony in the US senate regarding the mishandling of intelligence leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.The three ladies mentioned went on to have successful public lives and continue to inspire future generations of whistle blowers across the globe.The culture of whistle blowing is now ingrained in the US and Europe and has come to be accepted as an important aspect of society to the extent that special laws have been put in place to protect the people who dare speak up against society’s ills. The US has “the whistleblower protection Act of 1989” and in the UK recourse can be found under the “Public Interest Disclosure Act of 1998”In Rwanda today with the absence of legal protection, a culture of silence persists.The government deserves to be commended in the efforts to fight corruption so far. Most cases have come to light by police acting on tip-offs and setting traps for those suspected of wrongdoing. This is an expensive and painstaking process. It commits more police resources and man hours to carry out investigations to verify the accuracy of anonymous tip-offs. Encouraging insider cooperation by providing them with legal protection would make the police’s work a lot easier.In the case of employees, the fear of losing one’s job compromises them to look the other way even when their conscience inwardly convicts them to do the right thing.Whistle-blowing is AGACIRO personified. It is a necessary evil in the social transformation of a nation as ambitious as Rwanda. It is collective silence that allows evil to eat away at society’s core.When there are no more guerrilla wars to be fought, true warriors are manifested in the fight for socio-political justice. It is in holding your Murenge’s “Gitifu” or Executive Secretary accountable for his actions.Apathy is a cancer to society. It debilitates progress in much the same way a body devoid of its immunity succumbs to even the slightest cold.A famous quote from Martin Niemoller, a German pastor in the aftermath of the Holocaust, highlights the dangers of keeping quiet in the face of wrongdoing. After his persecution by the Nazis he looked back on his own earlier indifference with regret. The quote goes thus;“First they came for the communists,and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.Then they came for the socialists,and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.Then they came for me,and there was no one left to speak for me.”Let us all be our brother’s (and sister’s) keepers. Individual responsibility dictates that we actively intervene where we see things not going the way they should. We do not have to lose it all like Henry Hill in ‘GoodFellas’ before we realise the importance of “blowing the whistle” on wrong doing.

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‘Johnny come lately’ on whistle-blowing