Alfred Dawes | How good majority enable evil few

After World War II, the victorious allies held military tribunals where prominent military, political and civilian Nazis were tried for war crimes. One common defence was so often used that it became known as the Nuremberg defence. These perpetrators of some of the most heinous crimes against humanity proffered that they were just following orders.

The Nazis were able to carry out the holocaust with the assistance of many businessmen, soldiers, politicians and ordinary citizens. Even if they did not share the ideology of the Nazi party or were passionate about their respective roles, the structure of the bureaucracy made it mandatory that they would be complicit in the execution of the orders drafted by an inner circle. The many unwitting or reluctant enablers often had a belief package of what they are supposedly doing and the reasons behind the orders from the superiors.

When Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party was toppled during the last Gulf War, the US embarked on a process of ‘de-Ba’athification’ of government institutions such as the security forces and the civil service. The entire process was a disaster. After all, where does one draw the line between party members who were loyal supporters of Hussein and his repressive rule, versus those who joined the party in order to secure jobs and advance their careers. They were all just following orders and, in the process, passionately or not, sustained a dictatorship.

Throughout colonialism, it has been the establishment of bureaucracies of natives and local petty chiefs that sustained the rule of a minority whose armies were often thousands of miles away. The Indian army was used effectively during the British Raj (rule) to expand the empire into the entire subcontinent and neighbouring Burma. Such was the effectiveness of the sepoys following orders in subjugating their own and crushing rebellions wherever they arose, that they, along with that other army just following orders, the British civil service, became the pillars on which the British East India Company and later the crown colony were built.

The same scenario exists today in the many forms in which the former colonial powers dominate world affairs through institutions such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, although their armies and resources have shrunken. Once bureaucracies and institutions are established, their magnitude is irrelevant as long as the decision-makers have willing drones to follow orders. The evil in this world is not due to the deliberate efforts of everyone in the offending institutions or regimes. The majority are merely bureaucrats and foot soldiers handed a belief package and talking points. They are just following orders.

CALLED OUT AND HELD ACCOUNTABLE

It is who is handing down the orders and belief packages who need to be called out and held accountable. This does not absolve faceless bureaucrats who follow unethical, immoral or outright illegal orders. We all have a conscience that speaks to us when we know something is not right. The desire to obey unjust orders and laws must be subordinate to the desire to follow one’s conscience and do the right thing.

The massive disruption of the natural order of the world brings into sharp focus that what we see as right and just, and what has been determined by some to be legal and established policy, are not always the same. Slavery was legal yet anyone listening to their conscience would have known it was unethical. Yet the bondage of African slaves lasted nearly 400 years. Generations of good men ignored their conscience, lived, grew old and died while the evil was allowed to continue.

Several war crimes and genocides took place not because all the perpetrators and abettors were inherently evil, but because they had jobs and feared the monstrosity of the bureaucracy would punish their objections. This was reinforced with the strong belief packages handed down that stoked nationalism, tribalism, ideological differences or the simple thought that the evil they committed was for a greater good.

In probably what was his most misquoted, mis-referenced utterance, former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson stated that “the law is not a shackle but a tool of social engineering”. If we are guided solely by laws and regulations, we are supplanting the guidance from our conscience with that from a few in authority whose competence and motives can be questioned and compromised. Why then should one be shackled to protocols, regulations and laws that we know from our inner voice are unjust? Is lawful always equivalent to ethical? What then when they do not align?

The official secrets act is one such law that should be broken with impunity if it serves to shelter illegality or immorality. Too many times those in the know choose to turn a blind eye while corruption thrives because they don’t want to rock the boat or they’re more concerned about losing their jobs and pensions. Too often we allow policies and rules that are unjust or outright detrimental to be established and passed down to enforcers because we are afraid of the consequences of protests. Afraid to call out the inner circle.

Heroes often suffer and many times have untimely deaths, but it is the pain of living with the torture from a conscience that refuses to let them ignore the calls for justice, whether legal, social or economic, that binds them to a life of struggle. Will you just follow orders, or will you be one of the heroes we need now more than ever? It is not always a yearning for greatness why some men fight the battles they do. Sometimes it is their conscience that has led them to the battlefield.

- Alfred Dawes is a general, laparoscopic, and weight-loss surgeon; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; former senior medical officer of the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital; former president of Jamaica Medical Doctors Association. @dr_aldawes. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and adawes@ilapmedical.com.