John Tan has just graduated from Sunway University with a BSc (Hons) in Cyber Security. As a top student he was head hunted by the government and started working as a cyber security analyst at Bukit Aman police intelligence agency.

During the course of his work, he stumbles upon documents, which reveal that the government is spying on leaders of opposition parties whom they suspect allegedly have links to the Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers.
He discusses this matter with his superior officer, Superintendent Hashim who tells him that though the spying was illegal, it was essential for national security.He also tells John that sanction for the spying came from the highest office of the government. He further warns John not to divulge facts of the case to anyone else in the organisation and especially no one on the outside as it may lead to his dismissal from the organisation or even his arrest for treason. Superintendent Hashim indicated the presence of specific law/acts which prevented government employees from revealing secrets which would embarrass the government of the day.

However, John being an honest person finds himself in an ethical dilemma. He feels that spying, apart from being illegal, could also be misused by the government for settling political scores with its opponents.

The following are some options that John has:

1. Do nothing.

2. Talk to the head of the organisation to get his opinion on the matter and
and then do as he says .

3. Send an anonymous letter to the press leaking the details of the case.

4. Go to the press directly with the details of the case.

(The framework below will help you to answer the following questions)

Required:

1. Based on the case study above analyse the character of Superintendent Hashim in terms of his moral values. (5 marks)

2. What is the ethical dilemma faced by John? What moral values is he trying to balance?(5 marks)

3. Identify the stakeholders.(5 marks)

4. What are the facts which need to be verified?(5 marks)

5. Test each option using ethical lenses (20 marks)

6. If YOU were in John’s position, Explain the ethical decision you might take, giving proper reasons.You can use the options above but do not have to be restricted by it. (10 marks)

7. Your answer should include references to laws/acts present in the Malaysian context. (10 marks)

Get Answers to the Above Questions

Answer 1: An analysis of the given case study indicates about the situation of Hashim, and as a government employee, he has certain moral values that he needs to abide by. As an employee of the government, he has to observe moral values such as professionalism, respect for the work, integrity and timeliness and the most important one to decide positively between what is right and wrong. In the given case scenario, Hashim is performing the character of Superintendent, and his moral values indicate that he should bring any illegal activities to the attention of everyone, the scenario indicates exactly the opposite, whereby Hashim asks John not to reveal about the spying activities, even though it was illegal. This indicates that Hashim is not working as per what should have been his moral values.