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January 13, 2014

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Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns

Crawling stunt is no way to secure truth on assets

By Ni Tao | January 13, 2014, Monday | Print Edition

AS he Chinese saying goes, a man should not disgrace himself by falling on his knees, unless there is gold underfoot.

Prostrating oneself is a sign of utter humiliation for men in China. Yet there is a man who not only knelt down but crawled 1 kilometer in public — not for gold, but because of a bad bet.

Fan Zhongxin, a law professor with Hangzhou Normal University, crawled along the shore of South Lake in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, on January 1.

He did so in response to a failed bet.

Early last year, Fan tweeted on his microblog that in 2013, except for the ethnic autonomous regions, all other provinces and municipalities would implement a mandate requiring township- and county-level officials to declare their income and assets.

If his prediction were proved wrong, he vowed to crawl 1 kilometer for his mistake, Beijing Youth Daily reported on January 6.

Things didn’t go his way and he lost the bet. He kept his word and crawled for two hours, until his knees were bruised and palms were bleeding. Yet the sight of a distinguished law professor moving on all fours isn’t so humiliating, at least according to Fan and his wife, who filmed the stunt and posted pictures online.

Throughout the whole journey, Fan didn’t grimace in pain or lower his head in shame. He was all smiles, as though he were a proud marathon runner.

The humiliation could have been avoided by simply deleting the post in which Fan made the wager.

After all, vigilantes would probably not harass a well-meaning professor into honoring his word as mercilessly as they often do venal cadres. And who would remember a one-year-old promise?

However, Fan did. He took it seriously.

Just as his given name suggests —Zhongxin” means “loyalty and trust” — Fan places a high premium on personal credibility. “Otherwise, how can he teach students to match their words with actions?” his wife was quoted as saying.

Fan is indeed a man of his word, and his stunt calls our attention to a long-standing issue, the mandatory disclosure of officials’ income and assets.

But Fan was obviously too sanguine, even naive, about implementation and he underestimated the determination of cadres to resist the mandate.

Despite the occasional success of pilot disclosure schemes in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, can Fan’s stunt really shame some authorities into speeding up the adoption of the so-called sunshine policy? Very unlikely, I suppose.

In the eyes of those wielding power, Professor Fan is perhaps no other than a street artist amusing himself and the general public with some silly tricks. The message behind the tricks will scarcely get proper attention, let alone shame cadres into disclosing their assets.

At any rate, in the absence of mandatory official policies and strict enforcement, the quixotic efforts of Fan and his support from admirers will be laughed off as carnivalesque. Did they embarrass the intended audience? Or just themselves?

Meaningful reform must proceed in a serious manner. There will be obstacles and setbacks, to be sure, and Fan’s exploit reminds us that we are still far from reaching our goal.

Although his integrity is commendable, crawling isn’t such a persuasive example. No one in history has ever achieved significant reform by remaining on their knees.

This is a sign of submission, which makes it all the more shameful.

Rights can only be wrested from vested interests, not begged for as alms. We cannot possibly expect to push forward the reform with our knees still on the ground. We need to stand up and fight for it.

Hopefully, the next time Fan makes a bet, he is more discreet in his wager and less ready to demean himself. Crawling will not secure the gold at his feet — literally, the ill-gotten gains that cadres are going to great lengths to conceal from us.

This column is named after the head-butting bird that feeds on pests.

 

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