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Power abuses to blame, not golf

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-04 07:46

Corruption stems from the inability to limit officials' power rather than playing golf, says an article on the website www.qianlong.com. The following is an excerpt:

A deputy to the People's Congress in Guangdong province has recently said that civil servants shouldn't play golf because the high-end game can be seen as a type of corruption. The suggestion is to use other relatively cheap sports events like badminton instead of more well-heeled pastimes.

In fact, badminton or golf is not a yardstick to judge whether a civil servant is corrupt. As long as systematic restraint is in place, it does not matter what kind of ball sports civil servants may play. On the contrary, if the systematic restraint is out of place or lacking, corruption may even occur while playing glass balls, a sport usually for children.

Every one has his or her hobbies. And if some civil servants love playing golf with their own money, it's obviously unfair to ban them from having a swing. What we should ban is the abuses of political power in their hands.

So, we should try our best to perfect current systems that combat corruption.

(China Daily 03/04/2009 page8)