BEIJING: Fighting corruption is one of the top priorities of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government. People
resonate to this priority, as reflected in the cooperative, outspoken
and effective anti-corruption stance of the ever vigilant and active
netizens.
In December 2010, the State Council formally issued the
anti-corruption white paper: `China`s Efforts to Combat Corruption and
Build a Clean Government`. And the anti-corruption campaign will be a
key issue on the agenda of the 18th National Congress of the CPC, which
begins on Nov 8.
During the past decade, the Central Commission
of Discipline Inspection of the CPC processed about 700,000 corruption
cases. It will expose many more cases and prosecute many more people.
Corruption must be checked and not allowed to contaminate and corrode
CPC members and government officials.
Generally, fighting
corruption requires trained eyes for telltale signs of corrupt
practices. One key thing to look for is public officials` relation
(possession, use and dissemination of or access) to luxuries, be they
goods, services or both. In fact, succumbing to the lure of luxuries has
become a key element of corruption in China.
Accordingly,
China`s anticorruption agencies are educating and training agents about
luxury goods and services to better fight corruption. Netizens are also
playing their part in fighting corruption by being alert to the lure of
luxuries tocorrupt officials.
A recent example, widely reported
on the Internet, shows how netizens and official anti-corruption
agencies are cooperating. Looking at photographs, some netizens noticed
that Yang Dacai, a senior Shaanxi province work safety official, had a
repugnant smirk on his face while inspecting the site of a tragic
transport accident. Checking other photographs of Yang, they identified
that he sported 11 luxury watches on different occasions, which he could
not afford given his level of income as a civil servant. This exposure
led to official investigations, which found Yang guilty of corruption.
He was sacked on Sept 21, 2012.
Yang`s public display of luxury
products is a case of inappropriate `conspicuous consumption`, a
socioeconomic phenomenon of `wasteful and lavish consumption to enhance
social prestige`. Yang did not have to wear his pricey watches in
public, but he was driven by vanity and a false sense of social prestige
to do so. Many corrupt officials like Yang indulge in conspicuous
consumption to gratify themselves with illegally earned money.
It
was Thorstein B. Veblen, a Norwegian-American sociologist and
economist, who coined the term `conspicuous consumption` in his book
`The Theory of the Leisure Class` in 1899. The term describes the
socioeconomic reality of the then nouveaux riches in the United States,
who, after acquiring sudden wealth, spent extravagantly on material
excesses purely to show off and match the much envied lifestyle of the
longestablished rich. It was a case ofshowing off `new money` to `old
money` to gain self-esteem.
By the 1920s, conspicuous consumption
had become the prevalent culture in the US. E Scott Fitzgerald
fictionally documented this wayward 1920s culture in his celebrated
novel `The Great Gatsby`. The novel is about corruption rooted in
personal moral failings. It is about the corruption of people seeking
social prominence through conspicuous consumption. In the value-neutral
scholarly words of Veblen: `to gain and hold the esteem of men is not
sufficient merely to hold wealth and power. The wealth and power must be
put into evidence.
In separate scholarly and literary works
Veblen and Fitzgerald both documented a universal condition of human
weakness: Humans need to bolster self-esteem through ostentatious
display of wealth and power, often through socially unacceptable means.
This universal human condition has been present throughout history and
across geographical boundaries. The verdict that `socially unacceptable
means` must be eradicated is universal. The ways to eradicate them,
however, are less universal, and are largely particular to a society.
In
30-odd years of reform and opening-up, China has lifted millions of
people out of poverty and is moving toward achieving the ancient ideal
of a `moderately prosperous` (xiaokang) society. Along the way, many
people have become rich, sought social prominence or indulged in
`conspicuous consumption`, and many officials have wallowed in
corruption. Being wealthy, seeking social prominence and even indulging
in`conspicuous consumption` are, to various degrees, acceptable, but
being corrupt can never be acceptable.
Realistically, given human
nature, corruption in Chinese society today is like a cancerous pain,
to snip it now will bring enduring joy, China has to remove the
malignant growth in the best possible way.
China is fighting
corruption and conspicuous consumption in three ways: formally,
informally and culturally. The formal ways are documented in the State
Council`s 2010 anti-corruption white paper, and include systemic reform,
enforcement of laws and regulations, education and international
cooperation. The informal ways include creative contributions from
people, for example, anonymous netizens.
On the cultural front,
however, appeals should be made to the traditional social values of
frugality and moral rectitude, long found in the practices of
Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Appeals also should be made to the
modern spirit of Lei Feng`s service to the people. This spirit combines
values of traditional Chinese culture and contemporary socialist values.
The three ways are interconnected.
China has to be patient in
its fight against corruption, though, for as the country moves toward
realising a `moderately prosperous` society, the novelty of being
wealthy will wear off, self-esteem will be less dependent on conspicuous
consumption and corruption will be under greater control.
By arrangement with the China Daily/ANN
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