OPINION> Commentary
Moral regeneration is the need of the hour
By Lau Nai-keung
Updated: 2008-10-22 07:48

The tainted-milk scandal is by far the most widespread food safety problem that has hit China. It affected babies throughout the country, leading to several deaths. As milk is a very common ingredient in many processed food products, ranging from biscuits to drinks, it seems that nobody can totally escape unconsciously consuming some melamine. Many of the tainted milk, milk powder, as well as numerous food products are exported, leading to a worldwide frenzy to test all suspected products, and take them off the shelves once tested positive. Needless to say, in some parts of the world, babies and children are lining up to check their kidneys, and quite a few were alarmed to find stones there. A part of the positive image generated by our successful holding of the Beijing Olympics and the Paralympics has now been tainted by melamine.

Many pundits have rightly pointed out that the root of the problem is greed. Greed has just destroyed the American capitalist system, and is now leading the whole world into a deep recession comparable to the Great Depression in the 1930s. For the past 30 years, making money and getting rich has been a dominant theme for China. If we are not careful, and continue to let greed grow practically unchecked, this is going to destroy our socialist system before we know it.

Having said this, the next logical question is: how can we rein in greed? Conventional wisdom will advocate administrative check and balance, and a legal framework to punish the lawbreakers. But throughout history, our ancestors knew a far more effective way: moral ethics. There is simply no way that we can practice check and balance on all people at all times, catch the offenders and punish them. But everyone is with himself all the time, and if each of us is trained to reflectively exercise self-checking and restraint, and to automatically refrain from doing anything improper, all the external mechanisms will become secondary.

Unlike in the Western Judeo-Christian tradition, in traditional China, morality did not derive from religion. It was a rational system derived mostly from Confucianism, and taught to every child. This was in turn reinforced by religion. For example, both Buddhism and Taoism believe in universal causation and reincarnation. As years went by, this moral system degenerated into a very suppressive regime quite unsuitable to the modern world, and was swept away by the "cultural revolution" in 1966-76. However, the ultra-leftist morality of the Gang of Four during that "Ten Years of Calamity" also shattered the socialist ideal advocated during the first two decades of the People's Republic. What emerged from the "cultural revolution" was a morality crisis. Put it simply, many people no longer believe in anything except money. Using melamine to fortify the nitrogen content of the diluted milk in order to make more profit comes as no surprise.

This is alarming, and it is not conducive to sustainable development and a harmonious society. In fact, it may lead to the destruction of every fabric of the Chinese society.

Meanwhile, a revival of traditional religions such as Taoism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity is quietly but actively taking place throughout the country. The government is also actively sponsoring various religious institutions and activities. In recent years, the authorities are also footing the bills for new churches and temples.

Confucianism, which constitutes the backbone of traditional ethics and permeates every facet of Chinese life, is making an evident comeback.

Popular "Confucius Says" books were bestsellers in 2007. Yu Dan, the author of one of the series, is now a celebrity in the mainland as well as in Taiwan. For example, the core focus of Confucianism is people, and human relationships. This concept, which is deeply ingrained in the mind of every Chinese, provides the natural intellectual and moral underpinning of the popular Mao Zedong slogan "serve the people". It is also central to Hu Jintao's proclamation that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is "governing for the people", and its policies are "people-centered".

As an ideological antidote to the lack of morality in China, Hu Jintao introduced in March 2006 eight categories respectively of honor and shame as standards of socialist morality. Known as the Eight Honors and Disgraces, it summarized what a good citizen should regard as honorable or shameful. These yardsticks were later incorporated into the socialist core value system in a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee in October 2006.

It consists of four major elements: Marxism and socialism with Chinese characteristics, patriotism, the spirit of reform and innovation, and socialist morality. For the first time, the focus of the CPC has encompassed codifying moral standards, in addition to setting social and economic goals. The socialist core value system was stressed again in the 17th National Congress of the CPC in October 2007.

The effort is going to stick, as the slogans are heavily promoted through posters in classrooms, banners in the streets, media and display boards for the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as Shanghai World Expo. More importantly, modern civic education is now part of the school curriculum throughout the country. Children are taught when they are very young how a good citizen should behave.

The age of naked pursuit of materialism is passing in China. The nation is now aspiring to recover and develop its historical culture, as it advances on the global stage. There is still a long way to go, and the tainted-milk scandal serves as a timely reminder how arduous the path is going to be. But as the Chinese people have already moved quite a few proverbial mountains in recent decades, we are confident this is another one we can budge.

The author is a member of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Basic Law Committee of the National People's Congress Standing Committee

(China Daily 10/22/2008 page8)