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personal experience of these refugees.
An analysis of these attitudes may be found in the "Second Report" by Sir Alastair Blair-Kerr1 and one relevant paragraph of the analysis is reproduced here :
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A high proportion of the middle-aged or elderly residents care from China as refugees after 1949. In China they lived under the KMT Government which was riddled with corruption. They were conditioned to a style of Chinese Goverment suffering from the long heritage of dynasties of corrupt and oppressive rule with Government official- wielding unchallenged power. Undoubtedly. there were many just and clean officials as well. Indeed, some incorruptible historical geres became Chinese legends. However, the image of the Chinese Governments made the people believe that most officials were corrupt. Chinese proverb FC T &
Ine cummo i all the rows in the world are black) stemmed from this impression, Government, accountable to the public for its acts, and serving the
A clean, fair public as its duty. was certainly the high political ideal advocated by ancient sages and the four traditionally upheld qualities of model
樣黑
سلامة
officialdom (公正廉明 fairness, uprightness, integrit, and acumen, all implied a categorical condemnation of corruption as a heinous crime. However, these ideals were often not fulfilled in practice.
Deep-rooted impressions of the KMT regime rotting with corruption have made these immigrants believe, without too much critical examination, that many Hong Kong Government officers, like the Chinese officials they knew, may also be corrupt. This belief in itself breeds corruption because it leads to voluntary bribery by people who consider it normal practice in dealing with Government." For a considerable period after World War II therefore, there seemed have been almost a double standard in the general public's attitude towards "corruption. There was a moral standard to which only lip service was paid. This standard was swept aside when "practical considerations necessitated the giving cr the receiving of a bribe,
5.5 Atitude of Government Officers Exposed to Corruption
The importance of sheer personal greed as the prime motivation for officers Government soliciting and receiving bribes must not be under-estimated in this situation. The huge sums of money available to individuals for doing or not doing their duties in a particular way was a powerful incentive to be corrupt, and in many way. personal moral doubts were quickly and completely submerged.
5.6 Ch. theory of attitudes may help to illustrate this double standard moe
clearly, An attitude is generally regarded by sociologists as a fairly permanent state of mind evolving out of an accumulation of experience. Cuch experience is derived from constant association with two basic scoial situations interaction with a person's "primary group" (usually his family) and his "reference group" (his occupational, professional or institutional grouping). Attitudes are also determined by a person's perceived goals, a fundamental aspect of which is the acquisition of material benefits. This, in turn, leads to a person wishing to rise in the estimation of the members within his "primary" and "reference" groups.
2
'See - "Second Report of the Commission of Inquiry under Sir Alastair Blair-Kerr"
Scptember 1973- Para, 870
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Based on Paper on "Attitude Change" by Dr. Betty Chung Community Research
Officer. Community Relations Dept. I.C.A.C. Please consult Dr. Betty Chung
further details are required.
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