Hot on the Web
Anti-graft system has many loopholes
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-22 07:46
 |
Large Medium Small |
An official of Chengbu county in Hunan province was prosecuted recently for allegedly taking bribes. His daughter has now opened a blog in which she claims her father is innocent. To prove her point, she has posted photographs of her home that reflects the not-out-of-ordinary lifestyle of the family. This shows that the anti-corruption drive has several drawbacks, says an article in Oriental Morning Post. Excerpts:
Using the Internet to expose corrupt officials has become a trend. But now the Net is being used even to defend the innocent, or people that bloggers and netizens claim have been falsely incriminated.
A high-ranking official of Chengbu county in Hunan province was prosecuted recently for alleged corruption. But his daughter has posted several articles and photographs in her blog, claiming that her father is innocent and her family has always led a "decent" life.
She is free to express her personal opinion and offer proofs to support them. But can they be taken as truth? The public may not trust her because she is the daughter of the suspect. Besides, there is no guarantee that a person leading a "decent" life is not corrupt. It is true that most of the corrupt officials live a luxurious life, but there have been others who led extremely decent lives despite being corrupt.
In some sense, what the official's daughter has done reflects some of the drawbacks in the existing anti-corruption system. Obviously, the lack of regulation that would have compelled officials to declare their assets is one of them. Besides, the anti-corruption system is not as efficient as it should be, because many corrupt officials are exposed by netizens. People don't hit a wall while trying to tip off netizens against corrupt officials, because bloggers and other Net users do not have a stake in the affair. In other words, the fight against corruption is highly dependent on the Net. Therefore, those trying to defend the innocent have no option but to turn to the Net for help.
(China Daily 01/22/2010 page9)
