Integrity and self-respect

The ancients divided virtues into eight categories: filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, trust, courtesy, righteousness, integrity, and shame, and collectively called them the "Eight Virtues". A person who lacks any of these virtues is no longer considered human.

Integrity refers to a person who is clean, clear, upright, and not greedy. Shame is a person who feels ashamed when doing something wrong. They are self-aware and do not do things that go against their conscience or common morality. They cannot accept and feel ashamed if they do those things.

“Integrity” and “shame” are the two most noble virtues of human beings, because a person without integrity will take anything, a person without shame will do anything. People today say that image is “paralyzed nerve of shame”. Or sometimes they say “thinking to know everything, but not knowing shame”! Cultured people understand that this is an assessment, a very “harsh and meaningless” statement!

To make society better and purer, not only do we need to respect and uphold the law, but we also need the integrity and self-respect of each individual.

Illustration photo

The Japanese are famous for their integrity. Through movies, we see that they uphold the spirit of the samurai, the spirit of dying with honor, for honor, not accepting disgrace. During the double disaster (earthquake and tsunami) in 2011, from the elderly to the children, they lined up in order, sharing each relief gift, not jostling, not stealing; a series of elderly workers volunteered to rescue the nuclear power plant on behalf of the young. They were afraid that if they were unlucky enough to be contaminated by radiation, they would be willing to sacrifice themselves for the young.

The Japanese today avoid insulting others, because there are people who have done bad things, if exposed, they will commit suicide. Their supermarkets do not install cameras like other places. The simple reason is that a store installed cameras to manage and monitor goods, but after only a few days, no Japanese people came to buy anything anymore. They think that the people at this store do not believe in their honesty. Installing surveillance cameras means insulting their self-esteem, so they boycott. Company employees who go on business trips or do public work do not need to get invoices, but only declare according to their own records, etc. People absolutely trust the honesty and integrity of employees. Former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo himself felt that his health was declining and not guaranteed. He tried to basically handle the Covid-19 epidemic and then "kindly" asked the people to resign from the position of Prime Minister and retire.

Many officials in civilized countries, when the field they are in charge of does not achieve as planned, even just because of a wrong statement or because of a delay, the person in charge apologizes or they voluntarily resign.

The Vietnamese people are deeply influenced by Confucianism and attach great importance to maintaining integrity. In our cadres from the past to the present, there are many bright examples of integrity. Many veteran cadres and people with great contributions to the revolution refused to receive housing to live in the countryside.

The late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet once said: If the 500KV line cannot be built, I will take off the Prime Minister's shirt!

Many people work in independent, very sensitive fields, with many "opportunities" to "violate" without anyone knowing or not daring to reprimand them. But they still consciously "not touch a needle or thread" of the People. They believe that "personal honor/ Is the common property of comrades/ Must be meticulously preserved/ Like the pupil of a human eye/ Until the blood runs out, the breath dies/ Do not stray from discipline",... It can be said that it is impossible to list all the shining examples that have been immortalized.

Illustration photo

However, it is regrettable that among our cadres today, there are some who lack self-awareness, clarity, training and "self-preservation". Many officials and directors of state-owned enterprises embezzled and lost hundreds and thousands of billions of dong, but still went around in circles. For "group interests", they "gave bribes" and made projects look weak. Many wrongdoings were blatantly wrong, but they still argued and argued. Even generals and colonels in law enforcement colluded with criminals. Villas worth hundreds of billions were explained as thanks to driving motorbike taxis or selling brooms, but their faces were still smiling. Buying grades for their children, they brazenly said that it was done by others, without their knowledge. Local leaders embezzled money from families with meritorious services, from people with disabilities,... so that some leaders had to exclaim "they don't hesitate to eat anything" without feeling ashamed! People knew everything. People were terrified. People despised.

It is time not only to propagate and persuade to "improve revolutionary morality" but also to severely punish those who do things without knowing how to preserve integrity - self-respect, the minimum virtue of every human being! Only then can we maintain discipline, the law of the land, morality and ethics, and gain the trust of the people.