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Officials should channel spirit of Bethune

By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-08 07:46

People's Daily Online and News of the Communist Party of China yesterday published results of a survey they conducted on netizens' assessment of young cadres, those who are 45 or younger who occupy leading posts in government and CPC departments.

The websites, www.people.com.cn and cpc.people.com.cn, carried a graphic showing the respondents' reactions to two questions.

One of them asked: "Which of the following qualities do you think young cadres need to improve most?"

Fifty-two per cent chose "Moral character"; 21.9 per cent chose "Political correctness"; 21.2 per cent opted for "Handling complex problems"; and 4.9 per cent favored "Capability".

The other question was "Which of the following aspects in selecting and training young cadres do you think needs to be improved immediately?"

The responses were: "Put them in grassroots units to assess their performance (43.1 percent); "Give priority to their moral characters while ensuring they possess both virtue and ability (43 percent); "strictly monitor their conduct (7 percent); "Educate them to be a loyal communist" (6.9 percent).

The responses suggest two things. First, the public cares more about officials' morals than their capabilities, though having "both virtue and ability" has been a traditional criterion used to gauge officials.

Second, the public remains skeptical about whether personal moral quality has been given enough attention in promoting officials.

People's doubts are well founded after a flood of media reports about officials' immoral conduct.

The latest case in Xishui, Guizhou province, saw "a number of public servants" tried for soliciting prosti-tutes and sex with underage girls.

People have every reason to ask how these unscrupulous men were recruited as government officials.

One may argue that they were originally morally fit only to be corrupted by their power in later years. If so, it makes the process of officials performing their duties more questionable.

Another example is more shocking. Lin Jiaxiang, Party chief of the Shenzhen Maritime Bureau, molested, or tried to molest, an 11-year-old girl in a hotel in Shenzhen on October 29 last year.

When condemned by the child's parents, the officials said: "Yes, I did it. What can you do to me? Tell me the price. I can give you money Do you know who I am? I'm from the Ministry of Communications, with a rank as high as your mayor. How dare you challenge me, you pigmies! Wait and see how I will give you a good lesson."

Lin's despicable behavior revealed what an arrogant official obsessed with power he was.

Lin was right - about his high status on the hierarchical ladder in China's officialdom - just as people were to question the process of promoting such low-lifes.

"Tell me who recruited this guy into the Communist Party in the first place," commented one angry Netizen.

Chinese people still hold strong confidence in the Communist Party. But many Party members have failed to meet this expectation.

They need to refresh their memories of the late Chairman Mao's instructions on the essential qualities of a Communist.

In an article commemorating Canadian Communist Norman Bethune, the surgeon who came to China to help the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao wrote: "We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man's ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people."

E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn