Ken Jones, Contributor

Mention the name Cynthia Cooper and people in Jamaica will wonder who in the world she is. And yet, this is one courageous woman who shook up American business, engineered the downfall and imprisonment of financial giants and brought about new regulations to govern business ethics in the United States.

TIME magazine named her among three women as 'Persons of the Year 2002,' and these honourees had one thing in common: They blew the whistle on big-shot wrongdoers in America.

Here in Jamaica, there is much controversy over allegations that a bank employee acted against existing conventions and set off possibly Jamaica's most devastating political scandal. As I write, one minister has lost his job and others, including the Prime Minister, appear to be in one form of jeopardy or another. Joining the People's National Party (PNP) at the centre of the storm is Trafigura Beheer, a huge international business concern, which itself has gone on the defensive in light of ethical regulations set by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Criminal offence

OECD instructions to its members are that: "Each party shall take such measures as may be necessary to establish that it is a criminal offence under its law for any person intentionally to offer, promise or give any undue pecuniary or other advantage, whether directly or through intermediaries, to a foreign public official, for that official or for a third party, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in relation to the performance of official duties, in order to obtain or retain business or other improper advantage in the conduct of international business."

Most observers in Jamaica are focusing attention on the large, questionable sum of money placed by Trafigura into an obscure bank account owned by a minister of Government just about the time when it was negotiating for a sizeable government contract. There are others though, who are more concerned about the breaching of a bank's confidentiality. The matter, they say, should have remained secret. It boils down to a matter of opinion as to which is the greater crime or immorality: disturbing the bank customer's privacy or shedding light on a deal that seemed to threaten good governance and other national interests.

In the case of the TIME-honoured trio of female whistle-blowers, the call was clear and irresistible. They took the more precarious decision. Cynthia Cooper, an internal auditor, unveiled a US$3.8 billion accounting fraud involving WorldCom. Sherron Watkins, a vice-president of Enron, exposed her company's improper conduct, and Coleen Rowley of the Federal Bureau of Investigation set a cat among the cool pigeons in the top coop of her organisation.

Cynthia Cooper's strike against confidentiality in business was upsetting. However, contrary to the fears of some Jamaican worriers, it tended to reconstruct and strengthen rather than destroy American business. The country's second-largest telecom company ended up in the biggest bankruptcy in history. Large numbers of Cooper's co-workers not only lost their jobs but were left with millions of worthless stock. Many WorldCom executives were convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to 25 years. But the world's largest capitalist system remained intact.

Rather than weep over spilt milk and rotten apples, the Americans cleaned up the mess and enacted more stringent laws not only to improve the business environment, but also to protect whistle-blowers like Cynthia Cooper. There are now laws to discourage those who would retaliate against whistle-blowers. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 provides that no company or any of its officers, employees, contractors, sub-contractors or agents may discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, harass or in any other manner discriminate against persons who reveal secrets in the public interest.

American business today is the better for whistle-blowing, but the path of rectitude is not an easy one. There are always those who prefer to kill the messenger rather than listen to unpleasant tidings of scum and corruption, especially where the revelations point to their friends or benefactors.

Defender of decency

Cynthia Cooper suffered immensely before she was recognised as a defender of decency. Her credibility was challenged. She was often depressed and physically ill at ease. In her words: "I remember many days when my father would sit at the foot of my bed, reading and re-reading the 23rd Psalm."

To those who fret about the fate of capitalism, I cite a statement by an avid supporter of free enterprise and the three women who blew the whistle: "These women were people who did right just by doing their jobs rightly - which means ferociously - with eyes open and with the bravery the rest of us always hope we have and may never know if we do. Their lives may not have been at stake, but they put pretty much everything else on the line. Their jobs, their health, their privacy, their sanity - they risked all of them to bring us badly-needed word of trouble inside crucial institutions".

In this matter, I do not 'sit on the fence.' I am prepared to be part of a movement to defend whistle-blowers who direct their efforts against government waste, fraud, deception or any other form of misconduct tending to abuse the lawful interests of the governed.

Ken Jones may be contacted at alllerdyce@hotmail.com