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De Maria, William --- "The Whistleblowers Handbook by Brian Martin" [2001] AltLawJl 81; (2001) 26(4) Alternative Law Journal 209

Reviews

The Whistleblowers Handbook: How to be an Effective Resister

by Brian Marlin; Envirobook, Sydney, 1999; 159 pp; $21.95 softcover.

If nothing else this book purges the idea that academics can't write anything practical. Brian Martin has had a long involvement in the politics of protest and uses this experience to write a strategy­ centred users guide to whistle- blowing.

Future Australians of conscience, tilting their lances at the great citadels of corruption, will be better prepared for survival, if not victory, if they have wandered through the pages of this important book.

Why do people envisioning a public interest disclosure need such a book? For a start because it assaults the naivety embedded in our faulty acculturation that we live in a working democracy where dissent in the public interest is honoured. Many a whistle­ blower has gone forth into disclosure with this dangerously false sense of security. The best we can say about our structure of governance is that it tolerates those who would draw our attention to the mis-firings of the systems. But it is tolerance of a negative kind as in 'I have to tolerate Lebanese moving into the street' not tolerance of a positive kind as in 'dissent is the back­ bone of democracy'.

Martin's book is wisely iconoclastic on this score. He makes no bones about the experience that waits the un-networked whistleblower. In fact the book beneficially (but depressingly) tells about the stormy voyage ahead even before the whistleblower has left port. Through case studies we get the message loud and clear. Those who expose wrongdoing will witness attacks on their self-esteem, career, family, health, etc, etc, etc.

Networking is the best message in the book. Martin is good at portraying the benefits of working together. More then that, he goes into the detail of the politics of cooperation. Heck the citadels of power use (and use well) the strategy of cooperation to maintain their systems of oppression, so resisters (a strong but sadly unfashionable word) should do same.

Martin, to his credit, does not air brush the Everest-proportioned array of problems in getting whistleblowers to work cooperatively. He has seen how messy this process is, yet he pushes on, helping the reader gain the street-wisdom needed to work together.

The book's ten chapters explore every nook and cranny of the whistle­ blower experience. He starts with the seven common mistakes people make: trusting too much, not having enough evidence, using the wrong style, not waiting for the right opportunity, not building support, playing the opponent's game and not knowing when to stop. I can say from experience that I have committed all these mistakes as an activist. Haven't we all!

Martin then explores, always in a practice-ripe way, how to identify wrongdoing, speaking out and its con­ sequences and how to read yourself­ are you really ready for battle?

The book then gets into the gritty preparation stuff; how much documentation do you need? What sort - photos, diaries, recordings? He then, rightly, defames official channels. Whistleblowers don't get anywhere going through the system. The best they experience is the domestication of their outrage. The worst? Their isolation and victimisation as trouble makers. No, going inside is going nowhere for the whistleblower. Martin explores the options outside, the external avenues for the expression of dissent.

The book then explores the pivotal requirement of building support: spreading out, involving others, mass­ ing the dissent and outrage. It's not easy, and Martin gives the clues how to pull it off.

Finally he smorgasboards together facets of real cases to illustrate his strategies.

If you are about to take on the sys­ tem don't leave home without Martin's book.

WILLIAM DE MARIA

William De Maria teaches in the Centre for Public Administration, The University of Queensland.

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