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Abuse of power

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-11 07:44

What is public power for?

It is a simple question for people who wield such power. The simple answer should be - it is to serve those who give them the power and provide for them.

For the township public security department in Shaanxi province, which asked for and got a "sponsorship" of more than 2 million yuan ($292,930) from 60 coalmine owners under its jurisdiction, power obviously is something to abuse.

It is a conflict of interests. We have no reason to believe that the money will not sway the department's way of dispensing justice in its dealings with these coalmines. Neither do we have reason to expect police officers from this department to be even-handed in serving the ones who have paid them and those who have not.

Some compare the money this particular public security unit has received to what has been called protection fees that mafia groups collect from business people within the area of their influence.

This department's explanation that the money will be used to install necessary public security facilities does nothing to detract from the real nature of the scandal.

The department's knee-jerk response that it will return the money is explicit evidence that its authorities knew well what it was doing. No excuse can exonerate the authorities responsible for this incident from the charge of deliberate abuse of power.

This is not the first case of abuse of power involving police officers. Reports of police officers acting as protection umbrellas for gangsters or people in illegal businesses suggest that there are bad apples who tarnish the image of the police.

It is what we call collective corruption or collective abuse of power.

When more people or even all members of an entire working unit share the dirty spoils from such form of power abuse, the authorities tend to use the excuse of getting extra welfare for their workers to evade the punishment they deserve.

If the law fails where the violators are legion, collective power abuse will likely cause serious damage to the image of public security institutions as a whole, which will finally lose public trust.

That hundreds of people could be mobilized by mobsters in several raids against local public security departments in Guizhou, Yunnan and Shenzhen in past several months speaks volumes for the public grievances against local police.

It is not just that local police officers fail to do what they should for residents. It has something to do with the residents' suspicion that the public power in their hands has been abused.

It is high time that something was done to address the abuse of power either by individual police officers or collectively by many in the public security sector.

The Shaanxi provincial public security bureau has organized a team to investigate the sponsorship scandal. We hope the probe will be thorough and the culprits will get due punishment.

(China Daily 11/11/2008 page8)