ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 charts the “systemic shaming” of unquestionably dedicated civil servants who fall prey to impossible catch-22 situations, defined by systemic conflict of interests, in which they are trapped more as victims of the system than as perpetrators. Their personal dilemmas and moral breakdowns as government appointees betrayed by the system appear as fatal professional forms of lynching and “field trials.” In such suicide media-events, the main questions that are raised in the public sphere are public responsibility and State accountability. Public servants caught in such systemic dilemmas and lack of choices are left hanging within the double jeopardy of being betrayed by the State apparatus they loyally serve and the reckless reporting of investigative journalists, lending legitimacy to the label “social murder” instead of suicide.
