Scandal thrives when probity is cast aside

EVERY scandal that damaged the trust in one public organisation after another; every exposé of snouts-in-the-trough sleaziness or the sexual abuse of children that has broken the relationship between one institution after another and the citizens of this Republic has a common theme. 

That theme is a constant in public discourse but it is far more active in the imagination than in day-to-day life.

It is an issue we must confront quickly if we are ever to move beyond the institutionalised slapdash and the vaguely corrupt.