Monday, June 18, 2012

The biggest corrosive toxin on the PLA’s pure skin

On May 31, 2012, an article in the Chinese magazine Qiushi (a bi-monthly on political theory published by the Central Party School of the CCP) studies democracy in the developing countries. 
It dwells upon the "Manifestation, Cause, and Lessons from Democracy's Failure in Developing Countries".
The article starts in 1970 "when many developing countries have been dragged into joining the global democratization movement." 
It explains: "Although democratic transformation has been going on for more than 30 years, most developing countries have gotten into trouble and experienced a democratization crisis"
According to the Communist publication: "These crises have the following manifestations": 
  1. Democratization has brought about social turmoil, conflicts, and even war;
  2. It resulted in poor efficiency in administration due to internal fighting;
  3. It caused political corruption;
  4. It affected economic development and brought poverty in its wake.
 It then analyses the objective reasons for its failure which include: 
  1. A poor economic foundation to support democracy;
  2. The lack of an efficient system and of the laws to guarantee democracy's execution; 
  3. The lack of a “democratic rationality” due to the poor quality of people's education.
The conclusion is that "China should learn from the countries that failed after choosing the path of democracy and find a democracy suitable to China’s national situation; develop democracy in coordination with economic development; and not have a 'shock style' democratization".
But what about China?
Has a totalitarian opaque system brought better results to the people of China?
It is a fact that more than 1,00,000 'social conflicts' are reported every year in China.
Nobody denies that 'democracy' as today practiced in India, is far from perfect. Money (usually black in colour) still plays a too important role in the elections, too many candidates with shady backgrounds gets elected, but it is fact that China is today much more corrupt than most of the 'developing countries'. 
Regarding the lack of 'efficient' legal system, China is also far worse than any 'emerging' or 'developing' countries.
Regarding corruption, the article (posted-below) of The PLA Daily admits that corruption is still No. 1 problem in the Chinese Army, "the biggest corrosive toxin on the army’s pure skin".
With all its imperfection, democracy (with a free press and an independent judiciary) is far better than the Chinese model. 
Let us speak again about it in 5 years, we shall see where the Chinese model has led the Middle Kingdom.
Historically, corruption has been engrained in the Communist system.
Remember the caves of Yanan where the great revolutionary leaders lead by Mao Zedong settled at the end of the Long March.
In the early 1940's, a famous writer Wang Shiwei, published very strong report about the party leadership accusing the leaders to live a good life even as they preached asceticism and egalitarianism. 
In his book Wild Lilies, Wang describes the leaders’ life, dancing at night while the common people had a very hard life and struggling against the Japanese invaders. 
Dr. Li, the Private Physician of Mao, who read the Wild Lilies said that there was a lot of truth in Wang’s allegations. According Dr Li the life of the Politburo’s members in Zhongnanhai was very similar. 
Though later Mao told Dr. Li “We won’t kill anyone, though, because if we were to kill anyone we would have to kill them all.”
He was speaking about the intellectuals criticizing the Party at the end of the Hundred Flowers Movement. Mao added: “This is a rule we laid down during the rectification campaign in Yanan in the early 40’s when Wang Shiwei launched an attack and published the Wild Lilies.”
Wang was however executed a few years later(under Mao's order).
Not only the Party was already corrupt in Yanan, but this People’s Party was unable to accept any dissident note or even being told of any wrong in the early days of the Revolution. 
Though this revolution has been idealized by many western commentators and writers, the fact remains that only one side of the so-called revolution could be seen by the public, i.e. the official version. Whoever would venture to say or write something not directly in line with the party ideology and theory was immediately suppress (or executed like Wang).
Democracy, despite its politicians is far better as long as the press and the judiciary remains independent (or at least more or less independent!).

The People's Liberation Army Admits that Its Greatest Enemy Is Corruption
Source: PLA Daily, 
On June 12, 2012, The PLA Daily published an article titled “Maintain the Purity of the Army's Party Organizations and Cadre Teams.”
On the same day, many major websites in Mainland China reprinted the article with a different title: “The People's Liberation Army Admits that Its Greatest Enemy Is Corruption, Seriously Affecting Combat Effectiveness.”
"The Party’s purity is in opposition to all corruption. We must resolutely punish corrupt behavior; this is the inevitable demand for maintaining the Party's purity. Both history and reality demonstrate that corruption is the biggest corrosive toxin on the army’s pure skin; it is  the cohesion and combat effectiveness of the troops.”

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