Officials feel naked heat
- Source: The Global Times
- [22:30 April 27 2009]
- Comments
Two steps back
Some officials reported owning property in Urumqi, Beijing and even Shanghai, said Wu. Others had made false declarations of property, he said.
Wu refused to supply any information about the falsified declarations. Nor would he specify who falsely declared their properties, how they had been found out or what punishments, if any, had been meted out.
"It's possible some officials involved in false declarations had already turned in the money," he said.
On the one hand, that not one Altay official has admitted to accepting any gifts or cash in return for an abuse of power, Alip suggests, is not credible. On the other, even the very idea of transparency raises official objections.
"Why not have all Chinese people declare their property?" said one provincial official in an interview during the convening of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference earlier this year. "Why not have all company bosses make their profits public?"
It's not simply that those who object to declaration of property interests are all corrupt officials, as Alip's more populist sentiments would have us believe.
"For the Chinese official, talking about one's wealth is as embarrassing as being naked," says local lecturer Xiong.
"Hold your tongue about your property" is not just a mantra popular with Chinese officials, but one to which many ordinary Chinese citizens would also subscribe: why stick your neck out? Nor is it entirely unreasonable for the more face-conscious official to feel embarrassed by disparities of income between the different regions of China.
"The reform is extremely sensitive," says Jiang Ming’an, a professor at Peking University Law School. "It affects the interests of different groups. A strong feeling that personal and family property should be private is one of the reasons some people strongly oppose such a system."
That said, the right to privacy for officials should come second to the wider public interest, argues Jiang. "Chinese legal experts have reached a consensus in this regard," he says.