Hebei is located at the foot of the Son of Heaven and has become famous several times for power-related incidents. In my memory, Hebei became famous once because of "my dad is Li Gang", once because of the "Tangshan beating incident", and most recently because "Ma Shushan, a retired cadre from Qianxi County, reported the secretary of the county party committee".
On January 15, the Qianxi County Procuratorate decided to acquit whistleblower Ma Shushan. The whistleblower in the case of reporting the county party secretary who was concerned about the whole network finally did not have to spend the Spring Festival in the prison cell. What can make the Qianxi County People's Procuratorate change the verdict is not because of the fairness of the law, but because of the intensifying online public opinion and high-level attention. Previously, Ma Shushan's lawyer had applied to the local procuratorate for release on bail pending further investigation, but it was rejected.
It is said that justice will not be absent, it will only be late. Whistleblowing officials is not uncommon in the history of the mainland, during the Wu Zetian period, the cool official Lai Junchen was on the rise by reporting and framing others, and after he gained power, he framed the people who reported or opposed him, so that Lai Junchen became a famous figure in the politics of cool officials, but in the end, Lai Junchen was still convicted of framing others and was exterminated.
Since ancient times, anyone who reports or frames others has three characteristics: first, he is angry for others and sees injustice; second, he thinks that the person being reported has a problem; and third, he wants to achieve the goal of taking revenge on others and seeking benefits for himself. In fact, reporting is very similar to framing, but the purpose of the two is different, framing is to frame others, so as to achieve the purpose of revenge or self-profit.
Ma Shushan, the secretary of the Qianxi County Party Committee in Hebei Province, is a retired veteran cadre who is 75 years old and was once rated as a "good person in Qianxi". is such an old man, he reported the secretary of the county party committee, obviously not for personal purposes, and the content of his report is also related to the overall development of the county. However, after the secretary of the county party committee knew that he had been reported, he ordered the judicial organs of the whole county to dispatch at the same time, and quickly arrested and detained the whistleblower and filed a case for prosecution.
After that, the incident reversed, and because the matter fermented on the Internet, it attracted high-level attention, and the Qianxi County Procuratorate had to make a decision of "not to prosecute and acquit". In fact, behind this incident, what made the procuratorate change the verdict was not the sanctity and justice of the law, but the reverence for higher powers. When the voice of the people is weak, it is impossible to transmit it to the upper echelons, which also highlights the importance of public participation in the Internet era from another aspect.
Justice finally came, and it was late, but not absent. However, who can resist the torture of time? The slightest delay in justice is likely to be a person's painful life. In the "Ma Shushan Report on the County Party Secretary Incident", if there is no intervention from a higher power, I am afraid that justice will really be absent. During the Wu Zetian period, there were countless people who were framed by the cool officials who came to Junchen, and there were a few people who could be rehabilitated. After the fall of Lai Junchen, those officials who were forced to violate the rules and discipline by his authority turned themselves in and said: "We should be guilty of capital punishment for failing Your Majesty! But we disturb the laws of the country and only add to our own crimes; if we disobey Lai Junchen's will, we will immediately exterminate our clan." It can be seen that the fear of power in society is greater than the fear of the law.
Of course, in modern society, it is impossible for a villain like Lai Junchen to have a living space. However, if judicial protection cannot be given to righteous whistle-blowing behavior, and leaders use the power in their hands to condemn those who report themselves as false-accused, will they not return to the old era when they were convicted for their words? Compared with framing, the former is to uphold justice, and the latter is to suppress justice. But if it is the power and not the law that adjudicates the whistleblowing, what difference is it from the old times?
Unchecked power leads not only to corruption, but also to a lack of justice. Justice that fails to uphold justice is not necessarily bad, and is likely to be interfered with by power. Fortunately, there is still public supervision by the Internet in this society, as well as the participation of the vast number of netizens, and fortunately, the top level of power is sober. But it is not enough for the high-level power to be sober, it also needs to be subject to the supervision of society.
At present, in the supervision of power, netizens and the Internet do play a great role. The eyes of the masses are bright, and they discern good from evil. Last year's hot "entering Zibo to catch up with the roast", Ma Xiaolei, secretary of the Zibo Municipal Party Committee, became a household name, but before that, there were also officials who were exposed on the Internet, mostly with negative images such as putting on official shelves or style problems. Netizens still have a clear view of those officials who do practical things and think about the people, such as Harbin, which has become popular for winter tourism this time, although the local officials in Harbin have not shown up, but netizens have given them a thumbs up.
Just imagine, if a retired old man does not enjoy the days of his retirement salary, he has to report to the secretary of the county party committee, is he full of food and support! Of course, this is the righteousness of his old man, and what he has in mind is the interests of the people of Qianxi County; if this were not the case, he would not have been rated as a "good person in Qianxi." But without the support of netizens, if there is no intervention from higher authorities, what will happen to Ma Shushan's report to the county party secretary?
Now, Ma Shushan has been acquitted, proving once again that justice is greater than evil is an eternal truth, but the process of finding this truth is indeed tortuous and long. Today's society needs people like Ma Shushan, and it needs the support of social forces, but what is most needed is the group of people who can always be sober and hold power.
Most people in society are weak, and only those who hold power are strong. In the adjudication of power, only the strong can participate in the duel, so the sobriety of the top leaders is even more precious. Just as the lyrics of the theme song "Qing Official Ballad" of "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo": "There is a stalk between heaven and earth, the scales are the common people, the scale pole picks the country and babbles, you are the star of the fixation, what is black, what is clear, what is treacherous, what is loyalty, laughing and scolding, angry and angry, and the lonely man with his back bent." The "you" in the lyrics are them!
We hope that in the future, if there is a similar "Ma Shushan report incident", it will not be to arrest the whistleblower first, but to check whether the content of the report is true, and to publish the results of the inspection to the public, which is a false accusation, and will not tolerate the whistleblower, so that everyone can become a warrior of supervising justice, so as to give the society a safe environment.
本文作者李鑫淼，源自公众号“思想者札记”（ID:SXZzhaji)