Fighting sexual harassment and corruption in businesses and higher education institutions

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Fighting Sexual Harassment and Corruption in Businesses and Higher Education Institutions Ali Mansouri Writer, Researcher, Consultant “I stayed anonymous because I live in a very small community. And they just think usually that we’re lying and complainers.”

“I’m sure the road will be long and difficult. But it will be positive in the end.”

“We’re running out of time. I don’t have time to play nice.”

Silence Breakers

The TIME magazine has named “Silence Breakers” as the Person of the Year 2017. Since 1927, TIME has bestowed its Person of the Year title upon a person or a group of people who the magazine's editors believe have most influenced news and events of the past year, “for good or ill.” The magazine's editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal revealed the selection. “The idea that influential, inspirational individuals shape the world could not be more apt this year," Felsenthal said. "For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable, The Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year.”

The term “Silence Breakers” thus refers to all those who have broken their silence and reported acts of sexual harassment committed by some “pervert” people who had power and influence.

Many of these people worked in the media industry and some are politicians in the U.S. or the Page 2 of 6

UK where there is free press and freedom of expression. Most of these “Silence Breakers” were too scared to report the sexual misconduct at the time of occurrence so they kept silent or they reported it and nobody took them seriously or took action for one reason or another but mainly because the pervert persons who have committed the sexual misconduct were very powerful and influential.

It has been both fascinating to follow the bravery of the women who have shared their stories of sexual harassment and really sad to hear about the sufferings they have gone through. This has been happening in the USA and the UK. But even here most of the victims were unable to speak out because they were frightened to lose their jobs or be labelled “troublemakers” by their organizations many of which are, ironically, in the media industry! The media has always been the voice of the people throughout the history of mankind but it has clearly let these women terribly down!

One wonders what is going on in the other parts of the world, especially in the developing countries, where most victims are stigmatized and powerless and do not have any access to free press or freedom of speech. We are sure there are far more appalling stories to tell about sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and there are far more tragedies and personal sufferings and on a far larger scale.

Fighting sexual harassment is, therefore, a necessity and a great challenge everywhere and in all sorts of organizations, especially in businesses and higher education institutions where we do not find any mechanism or system to help the victims to speak up without having to pay a very heavy price. Regrettably, this applies in a frightening way to many higher education institutions where some female students all over the world are being subjected to sexual harassment or sexual exploitation by some pervert and sick teachers and managers who trade “sex for grades”, “sex for exams” and “sex for favors”. What is worse than this is the bitter fact that there are strict laws with severe punishments for anyone or any writer who dares write about sexual harassment or sexual exploitation or dares expose pervert people whether you mention their names or not.

What we said above about sexual harassment can also be said about corruption in businesses and higher education institutions. There is a great degree of similarity between these two human and social ills.

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“Fighting corruption” has become a very popular slogan among governments, officials, politicians and others to promote their agendas, interests and consolidate their powers. We support all sincere efforts to fight corruption but we can very easily detect that these efforts are short-sighted and lack a coherent strategy to prevent corruption before it occurs: “Prevention is better than cure.” There is an urgent need for effective strategies, mechanisms and procedures within well-defined systems that strictly block any corruption.

Corruption, like sexual harassment, is one of the major problems facing the world nowadays. It is very widespread and it penetrates every aspect of our lives and all sectors. Higher education is no exception. It really hurts and makes us sad when the government announced policy is on one side of the valley and the real problem is on the other side. The policy is largely on paper only and the corrupt people get stronger and more powerful instead of being punished in spite of all the documents that may be presented against them even in a court of law!

There is another aspect of corruption that has been going on in some universities. This is related to the number of students in the university and the tuition fees the university charges. There has always been a wide discrepancy between the real numbers of students in the university and the “fabricated and inflated” numbers for whom the university charges tuition fees. For example, if the real number of new students in the Foundation Program is one thousand, the university will greatly “inflate” this number and will charge the Ministry for the inflated number! How could they do that? Regrettably, there are corrupt officials in the Ministry of Higher Education itself and they have been covering up corruption for personal gains.

How can senior managers hide their corruption from the Ministry of Higher Education and the anti-corrupt agencies in the relevant countries? They follow a very brutal and detestable approach. They constantly issue orders and directives to the teachers and members of staff preventing them from talking about anything related to performance, irregularities or suspicion of corruption anywhere in the higher education institution. If anybody dares ask a question or raise an intelligent, or a stupid, point, they will be silenced immediately and will lose their job or will be referred to the Police and the Public Prosecution accusing them of leaking “confidential information”. So, for these corrupt senior managers, any information related to corruption is “confidential” and no one is allowed in any way to talk about it. These measures are, by Page 4 of 6

themselves, against the official anti-corruption policy adopted by most governments in the world.

You see advertisements and notices everywhere, even in local newspapers, urging nationals and expatriates to pass any information they have about corruption in their companies and organizations to the Public Prosecution and the anti-corruption agencies in the country. But the corrupt senior managers do not recognize this policy as they mistakenly think they are very powerful and they are above the law like the pervert people who commit sexual harassment acts.

One day, the former Director of the Language Center and Foundation Program in a university was brave enough to write two “internal memos” about many serious irregularities and different aspects of corruption in that university. One memo was sent to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees; the other to the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The two memos were sent through the Secretary of the two Boards via the e-mail system which is the only official means of communication with the two Boards. The former Director was hoping that an investigation would be launched in the general interests of the students and the university. Instead, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees kept silent and did not respond. The Chairman of the Board of Directors went even further. He handed the internal memo to the Police and the Public Prosecution to be used against the former Director because he had the courage to write to him about the corruption of the Vice Chancellor of the university! Teachers and members of staff in the university are taken to the Police and Public Prosecution for writing any confidential internal memo to those who are supposed to lead the fight against corruption in the university. This very clearly indicates the level and extent of corruption in this institution. We can say no more than both the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Chairman of the Board of Directors should be ashamed of themselves.

There are also many hypocrites in some higher education institutions, who have volunteered to work as slaves and “spies”, passing to the VC and Assistant VC any sign of dissent or talk about corruption among the teachers and members of staff. They have also been getting rid of most honest and high-performing teachers and members of staff and have been spreading a very strong culture of fear. Teachers and members of staff are scared to death if you ever mention anything to them. There is no freedom of expression even in official meetings which have become trivial designed to accumulate praise for the “great achievements” of the VC and Assistant VC and everybody knows the university’s reputation is going down the drain!

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Corruption has become a universal problem but, unfortunately, most governments do not want to admit it. Some go even further and make laws against those who expose, or attempt to expose, corruption anywhere. These disgusting laws mix up between corruption and the protection of privacy. Corrupt officials should not be protected by any law; otherwise, the fight against corruption will be in vain. Some people are very narrow-minded and think that talking about corruption will negatively affect the reputation of the country. This is absolute stupidity.

Corruption is a very dangerous disease and fighting it and eliminating it will be beneficial to the country. It will make the country stronger rather than weaker.

Fighting corruption needs clear and explicit policy measures. For economic growth to take place, an environment less conducive to corruption and malfeasance should be a priority.

The findings of many studies also indicate that those countries that enjoy a substantial growth rate are those that have developed legal, institutional and educational measures that encourage bureaucratic honesty and discourage corruption and malfeasance To reiterate: both sexual harassment and corruption cannot be fought successfully unless there is a multi-system approach to this fight. There is a need for stronger anti-corruption institutions, accountability mechanisms and safety guarantees for the brave people who speak up against sexual harassment and corruption.

It is a great pity that many businesses and higher education institutions are being run, or are influenced, by pervert and corrupt people who, mistakenly, feel they are powerful enough to commit sexual harassment or corruption without being held accountable for their actions. This is badly detrimental to the success of businesses and the delivery of quality education to our students.

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