Opinions may differ on exactly what personal qualities a government official should possess for advancement, but doubts have been aroused by the suggestion that filial piety should be one of the criteria.
It was reported in mid-November that Jinchang City, in northwest China's Gansu Province, has adopted a new promotion system: Officials who do not show filial piety to their parents or care for their spouses and children will be denied the chance for promotion.
In accordance with the new measure, 12 aspects in officials' personal life will be examined, including relations with neighbors, family relationships and children's education.
While it's recognized that no promotion system is able to produce perfect officials, by adopting the new regulation, the local government has shown its desire to improve the present practice. Filial piety is not the only criterion, but anyone who does not show proven respect for parents cannot expect advancement.
Filial piety is a traditional virtue deeply rooted in the Chinese nation and the Chinese have always used it as a means of judging a person's moral level. One who does not treat his/her parents well is unlikely to be a good official-this is a common logic.
However, to link filial piety to the promotion system is far from achieving a common consensus in Chinese society. Some critics argue that those who do not show enough filial piety are not necessarily bad officials. Actually, throughout history, there are examples of excellent officials who always failed to do enough for their own families, so a good official is not necessarily a good husband/wife or a good son/daughter. Should they then be fired?
And also, some believe that the criteria for judging official performance should be assessed on the appropriate government standards for good administration, while a system based on filial piety falls into the category of the official's private life.
Filial piety comes first
Gan Chunsong (Southern Metro Weekly): Quite a few people doubt the new promotion system can improve officials' moral level. Some even argue that filial piety is an official's private affair which the government should not interfere in by relating it to the promotion system.
In Western countries, official morality has always been greatly stressed and is used as an important criterion to judge whether someone is qualified for a position or not. Take the U.S. presidential election as an example. Once one decides to run for the presidency, his/her private life becomes an open book to be severely scrutinized by the media, rivals and critics; certainly, any deficiency in his/her personality and morality at this time will prove fatal.
The Confucian political concept proposes such an ideal society where all ethical principles are strictly followed. Whether this ideal can be achieved or not depends to a large extent on the personal integrity and morality of the officials. In ancient China, the official promotion system always upheld the idea that only those of high moral standards could hold office.
When a well-developed promotion system is yet to be set up, local governments in some areas have begun to check the background of officials from various aspects, including their morals. These measures fully reflect China's traditional values and thus are a helpful exploration for a more rational promotion system.
Li Xiurong (www. xinhuanet. com): To require government officials to be filial does not mean that they have to always accompany their parents, but it certainly targets extreme cases such as maltreatment or abandonment of the elderly. If an official is too busy to spend much time with his/her parents, this does not show any obvious lack of filial piety. Today, it does happen that old parents are abused, or even abandoned, and even some government officials are found to have behaved in this way. If an official treats his/her own parents badly, it's impossible for him/her to treat ordinary people well.
It's a pity that in the real life, we do see some government officials possessing little morality. For these officials, the force of morality is too weak to regulate their practices and rigid rules seem inevitable.
Actually, the filial piety-based promotion system covers not only this aspect but also touches on various aspects of ethics, such as being kind to one's spouse and being honest and faithful. Any moral defect exhibited by government officials may lead to serious social consequences. Hence, morality is not a small issue for government officials. There must be a rigid system to tell them what to do and what not to do in terms of morality.
Xi Xuchu (www.eastday.com): Filial piety seems only related to one's family life, but how a person acts within the family can always best reflect his/her personality. Indeed, a good person is not necessarily a good official, but a good official must be a good person of high moral standards. We cannot expect one who is unkind to his/her own parents to be a good official who can serve the people wholeheartedly. Therefore, for government officials, filial piety is by no means something to be confined within the family, but is a mirror reflecting one's true personality.
The traditional promotion system concentrates on an official's performance, but seldom touches what they do off duty. While this part of an official's life is excluded from the performance check, the end result cannot be considered to be all-inclusive. Extensive knowledge of an official's personality in all situations will not only help the government select the qualified personnel it needs, but, more importantly, the officials will become good examples who can encourage the people to act in a moral way.
Hu Zongxiu (Beijing Youth Daily): What a good criterion! By taking into consideration "filial piety," the new promotion system is actually trying to promote overall moral standards in society. It's true that work performance matters the most in checking up on an official, but filial piety is also the basic moral code that everyone is supposed to follow, and government officials in particular. The new rule is a confirmation of such traditional values as filial piety, which will help to promote traditional virtues to a large extent.
Impractical rule is helpless
Xiu Yangfeng (hlj.rednet.com): For thousands of years, the Chinese have had high expectations on their officials, who are supposed to be not only capable in their work but, even more importantly, live up to a high moral standard. The people can forgive an official who lacks capability, but if there are deficiencies in personality or morality, such as maltreating parents, he/she will be severely criticized by the whole society.
The people's call for "rule of virtue" and for officials of both great capabilities and virtue is understandable. However, no man is perfect. "To replace laws with moral standards" is a big problem in China's traditional political culture, which has seriously hampered the improvement of the legal framework in the country. If we carry on this practice, more problems will arise.
The most effective way to select and promote officials is to follow existing promotion rules that cover almost all the factors that can determine if a candidate is qualified or not. The essence of these rules is the spirit of the rule of law. Laws and regulations have defined explicitly officials' powers and responsibilities. If they can live up to these rules, they will enjoy corresponding benefits; if not, the rules provide for their punishment. As for private affairs, the government should not interfere. It should encourage officials to be filial sons and faithful husbands, but never force them to do so. Once the administrative power has butted into individual affairs, the result may be totally opposite to what we expect.
A modern government must refrain from intertwining government affairs with individual morality. If the moral standards are too high, heavily pressured officials may have to pretend to be what they actually are not.
Sun Huamin (Shanxi Evening News): Filial piety is an obscure concept, but to be an official is a tangible job, so it's not easy to judge the tangible with the obscure. It's undeniable that filial piety is one of the pillars of thousands of years of Chinese culture. However, people in different historical periods have different understandings of filial piety. In ancient times, it was written into law that "of the three cardinal offenses against filial piety, having no male heir is the greatest." If we adhere to this tradition, then a single person cannot be an official and those who have no sons cannot either!
Confucian ethics pay much attention to filial piety in the process of development, heavily influencing Chinese culture. As time goes by, it seems unwise to bring filial piety into government work, as it will give birth to such problems as patriarchy and nepotism, which goes against the spirit of equality in modern society.
Zhi Fan (Jiefang Daily): As an old Chinese saying goes: "Filial piety is above all over virtues." How can we expect one who does not respect his/her parents to devote him/herself to the good of the country? The problem of using filial piety as a criterion to judge an official is that this standard is unreliable. Some argue that corrupt officials can always be kind to their families and even connive at nepotism, while clean officials are always strict with their family members and care more about their work than about family life.
By using filial piety as a criterion to check official performance, it is hoped that those who do not do well in this regard will abandon their bad habits and then improve the whole moral level of officialdom. However, if one believes that filial piety is an obligation, he/she will always act well with or without any rigid rule and never will try to use it as a tool to harvest benefits. As for those who have no sense of filial piety, the new promotion rule can only force them to pretend to be good sons/daughters while actually they are still indifferent to their parents. What can we expect from the new rule then?
Ma Feidao (Lanzhou Evening News): "To respect the elderly and love the young" is a citizen's obligation everyone is expected to fulfill, especially government officials. In my opinion, it's unnecessary to single out "filial piety" as a special criterion to assess official performance. Government officials are supposed to act better in terms of personality and morality than ordinary folk. To show filial piety is the basic moral code for everyone. Is it right for the government to hold such a low expectation of officials? Shouldn't it demand that officials act in a more responsible way than just to show filial piety?
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