Under the influence

Some people tend to do unusual, and even improper, things under the influence of liquor. But recent scandals involving inebriated government officials raise serious questions of public morality.

Last month, the Party secretary of the Shenzhen maritime bureau was reported to have molested a girl who showed him the way to the restroom in a local hotel after he had drunk too much. He was dismissed from his office for not behaving himself in public although his misconduct was not serious enough to be considered a crime.

A day later, a drunken official was reported to have boxed a doctor in the ear and kicked a nurse in her leg in a hotel because both refused to give him an injection as he was not properly dressed.

In the latest case, a village Party secretary, also drunk, kicked up a row at a local county government seat. He smashed the gate of the compound and bit the police officer in his hand when the latter tried to stop him from making further trouble.

It would only be regarded as a bad habit for an ordinary person to drink himself to the point of forgetting who he is once in a while. But it should not be that simple a matter for an official making trouble under the influence of liquor.

A popular saying about officials' unhealthy habit of drinking at public expense compares drinking to a way of decadence that causes damage not only to one's stomach, but also to the image of the government and the Party.

Some local governments have put in place regulations in recent years to ban drinking during work hours. Yet, the point is a government official should know better than ordinary residents where the line is, no matter where and on what occasion he is having a drink.

The two officials were actually in double fault. They not only misbehaved with others but also bragged about their official rank when they were reprimanded. Their overreaction reveals the real problem. Such officials take the power in their hands to be a shield of immunity against punishment for any offence.

The village head reportedly had his grievance against the county government for not allocating the fund he had asked for. One would have expected him to put up his problem with the higher authorities in a reasonable manner.

So, drinking too much is only part of the problem.

If the officials involved were sensitive to their positions, they would not have behaved the way they did. Better still, they should have had the sense of not drinking themselves into boorish behavior.

That indecent behavior by drunken officials makes news is a sign that the general public expect better of those in public office. They pay taxes to provide for them and therefore have good reasons to hope that officials should be sensible enough to at least behave themselves in public.

It should be anyone's concern not to surrender moral integrity and decency to an overdose of liquor. It should be more so for people holding public office.

(China Daily 11/20/2008 page8)