In life, parents do their best to instil the virtues in their children with the hope that they will be upstanding members of the community.
Those values are further entrenched by teachers, preachers, coaches and others who the children encounter as they grow up with the hope that by the time these children become adults, they would have fully embraced what it takes to live a lifestyle that would make all those who had a positive influence on them proud.
If those children aspired to public life, there were no expected standards, except that they would do good for the people they represent. The expectation is they would serve with integrity.
About two and a half decades ago, the UK government established a Committee on Standards in Public Life. The committee was tasked with making recommendations to improve standards of behaviour in public life.
Coming out of this were the ‘Nolan Principles’ that bear the name of the chair of that body, Lord Nolan: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
These principles have now been adopted in the Standards in Public Life Law that was enacted in the Cayman Islands at the start of March 2020.
A utopian hope would be that this legislation would not only be used for reference. Our leaders need to be continually placed under the microscope and be held to account.
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