“Despite being framed, threatened and imprisoned in Thailand for 18 months for leaking Petrosaudi documents, Swiss whistleblower Xavier Justo said he would risk his life to expose the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal all over again. … Justo is a key figure in the entire 1MDB saga and it is the information he shared with Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown which sparked off investigation into the fund in multiple countries worldwide.” (Source: The Star, 30 October 2018, Xavier Justo on role as 1MDB whistleblower, by Mazwin Nik Anis, Mei Mei Chu, and Clarissa Chung) According to Ronald Duska (2001), Norman Bowie claims that “whistleblowing … violate(s) a prima facie duty of loyalty to one’s employer.” Bowie argues that there is a prima facie duty of loyalty that prohibits one form reporting his employer or company. However, De George establishes the five criteria of whistleblowing which is commonly recognized at the Standard Theory recognizing its moral permissibility and necessity.
To what extent is whistleblowing a violation of a duty of loyalty with reference to Duska’s argument? Based on the complicity theory of Michael Davis (1996), critically discuss the limits of De George’s five criteria of whistleblowing. What will you do if you were in Xavier Justo’s position?