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Officials need confidence in law

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-16 07:34

We must punish officials who do not believe in law but hope money can buy them personal safety, says an article in Modern Express. The following is an excerpt:

Two jobless men successfully intimidated 17 officials in Sichuan province into paying 120,000 yuan ransom in less than two months. In this case, people found that these officials would rather pay money in return for their personal safety than seek help from police.

These officials seem to believe that only money can save them from the threat. For them, law is not as powerful as other measures like money, political power or personal relations in solving a problem, and they have long been accustomed to this belief, which leads to the collective surrender to intimidators.

If officials do not believe in law, how can China build itself into a country of rule of law, how can we hope that the public can stick to the law, and how do we guarantee social justice and equality? We may face the threat of legal crisis if the whole nation lacks adequate confidence in the law.

We must take concrete actions to protect the dignity of the law in the hearts of our people. So, it is necessary for our government to punish these 17 officials to let the public regain the confidence in law.

(China Daily 02/16/2009 page4)