Justice for our public servants

 

The injustice meted out to so many of our postmasters and postmistresses is back in the news yet again. An enquiry has been taking place into how it happened that several hundred local postmasters in the United Kingdom were convicted, over a period of years, of stealing from the Post Office - although the apparent thefts are now recognised to have been actually a significant and persistent software error. It now seems that many of these people were putting their own money in, as a means of keeping the offices open, and there has still been no restitution. The 555 people who collectively proved in the courts that the computer system was at fault were told that they would be given some real compensation. It has now emerged that the Post Office has proved incapable of organising such compensation, and most people have so far received nothing.

The whole story seems quite incredible. The Post Office, which handles a huge number of transactions on behalf of Royal Mail and also for various government departments, decided to implement a new computer system, known as “Horizon”, despite evidence that it was not working properly. Apparently, during the period of training given to the postmasters, reports of many errors in the system were being passed to higher-ranking officials, but these were just ignored, either by the Post Office or the software company or both. Therefore, when the system was implemented, these errors continued and postmasters and postmistresses were blamed for the discrepancies. They were accused of embezzlement, because money seemed to have disappeared from the accounts. To make things worse, it recently came to light that the resulting process of prosecution was conducted via a system of private prosecutions, which is legally available to the Post Office, and not through the criminal justice system with all its safeguards. The allegations were therefore not independently investigated by the police or by anyone except the Post Office. Surely, this should not be allowed to happen again.

It is reported that literally thousands of people were affected, not just those who appeared before the courts. Presumably, everybody in the relevant departments at the Post Office assumed that because a computer had done the calculations, the evidence was irrefutable. However, another disturbing fact comes in here. Apparently, every person accused of stealing money from the Post Office who suggested that it was the computer system, because they knew that they hadn’t taken the money, was told categorically that they were the only one who claimed that it was the system, and that nobody else had suggested that there was such a problem. This suggests a deliberate policy of finding people guilty, for reasons which can only be guessed at.

Bahá’u’lláh (the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith) said: “The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom... By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others…” It is totally wrong that these people were falsely accused and falsely convicted. The current enquiry has been set up to establish how it could have happened that nobody realised the unlikelihood of so many people suddenly being found to be stealing money from the Post Office; how it could have happened that faults in the system were ignored; and how it could have happened that while the postmasters have suffered greatly for years, losing their livelihoods, their reputations, their homes, their marriages, and even their lives through suicide, no blame has ever been put on any official responsible for the tragedy. Where is the justice in this?

Justice is so central to Bahá’í teachings that when Bahá’u’lláh ordained that an institution should be set up in each city, town or village where there is a Bahá’í community, He said that it should be known as the Local House of Justice. For the whole world He ordained a body entitled the Universal House of Justice. At present, however, the local bodies are termed “Local Spiritual Assemblies”, as they do not yet have the legal status to administer justice. Even with this temporary title, the members should “regard themselves as the representatives of all that dwell on earth” in their dispassionate approach to decision-taking. In the Bahá’í writings, we are urged to, “Be living examples of justice! … Justice is not limited, it is a universal quality… Justice must be sacred, and the rights of all the people must be considered.”

The Bahá’í writings also highlight other, more natural, aspects of justice: “Equality and brotherhood must be established among all members of mankind. This is according to justice. The general rights of mankind must be guarded and preserved.” And again: “There can be no doubt whatever that if the day star of justice, which the clouds of tyranny have obscured, were to shed its light upon men, the face of the earth would be completely transformed.”

In the case of the wrongly-accused postmasters, the tyranny was not political but was administrative and corporate tyranny. If justice had been to the forefront, the company which wrote the software for the Horizon computer system would have made sure it worked properly. If justice had been important to the Post Office, they would not have implemented a system with known faults. And, if justice had been the real goal of the lawyers involved in the prosecution, they would have regarded it as crucial to look with a critical eye into the facts of the case.

The complete transformation of the face of the earth, which, as mentioned above, is the natural result of justice in the Bahá’í view, should result in courts of law becoming courts which instead administer justice. Those who have suffered at the hands of apparently careless and unscrupulous software companies and careless and unscrupulous officials should now receive justice. As far as possible, those who have survived this ordeal should be both compensated and honoured for the service they were giving.