Take a leaf out of the mighty dragon’s book
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/53127-take-a-leaf-out-of-the-mighty-dragon%E2%80%99s-book.html
The
new rulers of China have been quick and unambiguous in acknowledging
the spread of corruption in Government. In India, the UPA regime remains
in denial mode even after being hit by
many huge scams
Everyone
knows that in terms of infrastructure development, China is today far
in advance compared to India. Most observers will say that it is due to
the authoritarian nature of the regime in Beijing: Decisions are taken
and implemented, and that is it. India has the excuse of being the
‘largest democracy in the world’, with its pluses, but also with its
impediments and negative collaterals.
There
is another field in which Beijing is more serious than Delhi: It is
corruption awareness. I am not talking about combating the plague, but
simply being aware of it and not brushing it under the carpet, as it is
done in India where the Government does not even acknowledge that
thousands of rich Indian have accounts in Switzerland and other tax
paradises.
Not many
in India may have heard of Wang Qishan, one of China’s seven new
bosses. The official ‘profile’ of this member of the Standing Committee
of the Communist Party’s Politburo says: “He can do it”. Xinhua website
commented, “Wang Qishan took up a challenging new mission last month to
lead China’s top discipline watchdog [known as the Central Commission
for Discipline Inspection], amid rising calls for crackdown on
corruption”. It added: “Simply more than a month into his new role, Wang
has demonstrated the same style that previously won his fame as a
troubleshooter in the economic field: Tough, resolute and confident in
front of difficulties.”
Can
you imagine a senior Cabinet Minister of India, responsible for
tackling corruption at the highest level of the Indian State?
Unfortunately for India, the senior
politicians are mostly in denial mode: There is no 2G Spectrum scam, no
Coalgate affair, etc. It is only an invention of the journalists (or
the CAG), they say!
At
the end of November, soon after his election, Mr Wang told a symposium:
“Ethics of the Party determines its survival or demise... In the fight
against corruption, we must convince the public that we are making more
and more concrete efforts and delivering more and more powerful blows.”
Is it because the disease in a terminal stage than China takes more
seriously this critical issue?
One
of the blows suggested by Mr Wang is to recommend the 19th-century
classic on the French revolution (The Old Regime and the Revolution)
written by the French historian, Alexis de Tocqueville.
An
article on the website Global Voices says that
this has attracted thousands of comments on the Chinese blogosphere. Mr
Wang seems to believe that China could witness a ‘French’ Revolution,
if it does not manage to rein corruption. Seventy well-known Chinese
academics and lawyers recently signed a proposal urging the new
leadership to start political reforms, including the separation of the
Party from the State.
Professor
Zhang Qianfan of Peking University Law School prepared the ‘proposal’
calling on the Party to manage the State according to its Constitution,
protect freedom of speech, encourage private enterprise, foster judicial
independence, and allow the people to elect their own representatives.
It asked Beijing to take head-on issues such as social injustice,
corruption, and the abuse of Government authority; otherwise, it
concludes, “China runs the risk of revolution or chaos if it does not
change.” Is the possibility of a
Revolution à la French looming over China’s ancient Communist regime?
By
recommending Tocqu- eville’s book, Mr Wang probably wanted to highlight
the dark sides of the French Revolution, which nonetheless helped
Europe to come out of the ‘regime of privileges’.
I
wonder if Mr Wang read this speech of Danton, the great French
revolutionary: “We ended the monopoly of birth and wealth in all
important offices of State, in our churches, in our Armed Forces, in all
parts of this beautiful country, France. We declared that the most
humble man in this country is equal to the greatest. The freedom that we
have gained for ourselves, we have offered it to all the slaves in the
world”. In the case of China, the tyranny of privileges is born with the
Party. Was not the end the monopoly of birth and wealth the first
objective of the Chinese
Revolution in 1949?
This
has abysmally failed; it is certain that the leaders are today aware of
this failure. Are Indian politicians ready to acknowledge that they
failed since Independence?
In
China, the question remains: Will Xi Jinping and his colleagues manage
to return to the basics, and offer a ‘peaceful’ revolution to the
people? The problem is that they themselves have their roots in the
system which has not succeeded.
The
reaction of the Chinese bloggers is interesting. They quote
Tocqueville: “Great revolutions that have happened historically, such as
violent revolutions, did not occur during a time of poverty. They
occurred when economic situations brought polarisation to society. This
is because at times like these, conflict between social classes is
incited. It is easy
for those in the bottom classes of the society to turn the flames of
their anger into flames of war.” Many scholars believe that the
conditions in China are not different from the situation in France
before the 1789 Revolution.
One
netizen wrote: “Tocqueville’s description of the social conflict in
France before the revolution and its development is a lot similar to
today’s China. If they remove the word ‘France’, it’s like a high
resolution picture of Chinese society. Due to the improvement of
material life and increase in wealth, the amount of ignorance,
arrogance, greediness, dissolution, shamelessness and depravity compared
to the old days before the revolution in France is simply greater.” But
another microblog wisely advised: “It’s better to watch what they
actually do than to listen to what they say and try to guess what it
means.”
In a recent
report about the Chinese contemporary society, website Chinascope argues
that the people have lost confidence in the Government. It quotes Xun
Zi (313 BC-238 BC), the famous philosopher: “The Emperor is the boat and
the people are the water. Water can carry the boat, but also capsize
the boat.”
The
report concludes: “If the Chinese people continue to distrust their
Government and actions against the Government intensify, it may be
inevitable for the Party-boat to capsize.”
During
his first speech as CCP General Secretary, Mr Xi quoted an ancient
Chinese proverb which stated, “Things must have gone rotten before
insects can grow”. He asked his partymen to stay clean and
self-disciplined.
Former
Peking University professor Zhang Weiying has
an interesting theory on the subject. He told a public forum in China
that corruption poses a serious threat to the Communist Party and not
the nation. Mr Zhang admitted that corruption in the Chinese Communist
Party has been worsening; he even said that few officials would be found
free of corrupt behavior if they were all put under investigation.
The
question seems to be, will China or the Party alone capsize, if
corruption is not reined. The year 2013 should bring us some elements of
answer. China’s present leaders are not followers of Mao any more. The
Great Helmsman had written: “Revolution is not a tea party. It is not
like writing an essay, painting or embroidering flowers; revolution is
an act of violence, it is the violent overthrow of one class by
another.”
The new
Emperors would prefer a gentler method. Will they succeed? India
may soon face the same predicament, if burning issues are not
acknowledged and acted upon in a timely manner. One solution is to have a
‘non-partisan’ Cabinet Minister to tackle the issue of corruption. Is
the Union Government interested?
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