In the people of the United-States of America and the People’s Republic of China we have two examples of a citizenry brazenly immune to the betrayals visited upon them by their political leaders. After 8 years of Bush chaos, death and destruction, a Republican candidate still stands a good chance of seceding him at the helm of what has effectively become a gravity bound deathstar.
In China, the vandals made off with the body and soul of the nation during the great leap forward and the cultural revolution, only to steal history itself and throw themselves an early anniversary party on the buck of the people. Talk about gettin’ away with murder. The red flags rise taller than ever, hearts prouder than ever, entirely unreconciled with the truths of the nations past.
By what mystical sleight of hand are memories wiped clean, or flushed of the more putrid ghosts left to dwell there by the powers that be? Is it blind and unreasoned faith that guides the deluded to renew, time and again, their love for those who would fool them? In blindfaith there are fewer questions, fewer doubts, and anyways without it the mass of fears that lie latent in the gut might be awakened and cast all into paralysis before the great unknown that is the fundamental fabric of our lives.Â
The melamine contaminated baby-milk scandal has threatened to tarnish yet again the stain-proof lapels of the CPC. Outrage has poured forth answered by promises to remedy the problems uncovered. Families will live through tragedy, compensation will be offered, quiet will return. Chinese baby-milk will be made the shining symbol of an efficient government, of a wrong righted in the pursuit of harmony.Â
The question in my mind is whether the Chinese and their leaders will seize this opportunity to take a long, good look at the nature of their relationship and the state of their nation. Efficient and effective government is one that prevents crisis by putting in place management systems founded on quality, not on guanxi; on standards rather than subjective considerations.
More importantly, efficient and effective government has to be supported by popular will and participation, not the abdication of personal responsibility in all areas of public life. Respect is accorded only to those who respect themselves, and in the most fundamental sense, the way the people of China are treated or mistreated by their rulers, by the industries that supply them with the substance of their daily sustenance and by the multitude of interests involved in shaping Chinese civil society, is a question of respect, systemic respect, the greater good above narrow self-interest, the life of a child above the ring of money in the bank.
I think the biggest thing to come out of this whole mess is that finally, the media sees that there’s danger in covering up a scandal.
Now, if media gets caught in a cover-up, they themselves become the scandal.
The Republicans have, at most, a 40% support from Americans. The CCP has at least 90% support from Chinese. Who is the bigger fool ?
“I think the biggest thing to come out of this whole mess is that finally, the media sees that there’s danger in covering up a scandal.”
Would it do any good if the media see the problem, and not the the governing party ? If the national policy is to suppress any bad news, will these media, ultimately controlled by the governing party, be able to report what they think need to be reported ?