To be or not to be - to whistle or not to whistle?

In recent years, Democracy in Croatia has become significant in uncovering many scandals and illegal operations of some state owned companies. Or has it? Where are the people today who "whistled"? Is it better to expose these scandals or to ignore unethical business operations and "mind your own business"?

What is a whistleblower and how is it defined? The whistleblower (from English to blow the whistle) is a person who publicly warns others of illegal activities (such as corruption, misconduct, violation of law or abuse of authority) of guilty individuals. Generally, a whistleblower is a brave individual who, for moral reasons despite the risk to his own career, decide to speak publicly about illegal or unethical behavior superiors.

In Croatia, we have had several examples of public whistleblowers who, at the end of "whistling," are not regarded with respect as a result of their actions.

Perhaps the best known whistleblower in Croatia is Vesna Balenović who, ten years ago, revealed corruption in INA. As a result of her exposure, she was fired and never returned to her job. To this day, she is still struggling with the event, which, according to many, is now part of the distant past. In fact, most people have even forgotten who she is – is she that too gaudy makeup blonde?

Damir Mihanović, one of the key witnesses of the case Fimi-Media, has suffered a similar fate following a public statement about corruption in Croatia Insurance Company. Because of his "whistleblowing," he lost his position as a board member of the company.

Additionally, Robert Mihanović still leads quixotic battles with the institutions of the state. He argues that for the past ten years, the Attorney General has warned of corruption in customs administration events. Now he argues that, in this respect, no one has done anything.

After a brief overview of how whistleblowers ended up in Croatia we ask ourselves: to whistle or not to whistle? What will be my fate if I discover some kind of corruption? Is it better not to expose what's going on and live a peaceful life?

Last week at our lecture, Mr. Mihanović sent a message asking us to think twice when we hear of corruption; it will be hard to compete with an unethical business.

How can we solve unethical business, corruption, and organized crime if we all keep quiet and close our eyes to what is going on? How will we ever prosper and thrive? How do we make a difference in society? Often we like to think of what Gandhi said: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Is it just a saying that we repeat, share on social media, write in the signature of our mail, or put it on the slides of our presentation? Are we meant to speak these words to others but ignore them in practice?

Some other countries have been able to solve this whistle-blowing problem, and their democracy is flourishing. Many of these countries are those we are often compared to; in Croatia, however, only 5% of people actually expose corruption. Is this a testament, as some argue, to how far we are from democracy ourselves?

So let's go a little to the West - what does the U.S. SEC do in cases like this? How can you protect your whistleblowers? In America, the whistleblower is not only protected from losing his or her job, but they are also given the opportunity for promotion within the same company which they've whistled. Additionally, they earn 10% to 30% of the amount of the damage they have discovered. Sounds encouraging for all of you who witness unethical behaviors, but is money is the only motive for whistling? Or are ethical reasons also considered?

Students – in what kind of company do you want to work? If you were to choose between a company that operates ethically, but does not achieve high profits thereby lowering your salary, and a company that is not operating ethically, but your salary is secured and very high - what would you choose? Likely, most of you would say always an ethical company, but would you think twice?

Employees - what would you do if you were to uncover corruption in your own company? Do you wonder if your salary, that is regular and fairly high, is earned ethically and because your company is successful or could something else be behind it? Or someone else?

Employers – do you conduct your business ethically? If you do not do business ethically (are you reporting on the minimum wage, the cost justification of private business purposes, anything else ...), would you mind if your employees acted unethically towards you by not working as efficiently as they could?

To be or not to be? To whistle or not to whistle?

Think twice.