【Flyer杀G作文组】第六次作业Issue43-By afufu1124

afufu1124UID: 2786856

ISSUE 43
43. "To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards."
分类：政治
论点：有保留反对
开头：让步+立场
论证过程：结论型
时间：18:20-19:55  字数：464
I essentially agree with the speaker that an effective leader, public official should maintain higher level of morality and ethics. A contrary view would risk contaminating society in terms of allowing corruption, increasing inequality and shielding criminations. Nevertheless, highest ethical and moral standards are vague notions. In fact, it is sometimes necessary, and even desirable, for political leaders to disobey moral standards in special circumstance. (18:35)

One obvious reason for my fundamental agreement with the speaker is that leaders should treat others with equality, openness and fairness. Leaders are expected to fight for the sake of public’s benefits, not for any particular persons—relatives, superiors or bribers. Another reason is that officials should act as paragons to the citizenry. Quality such as diligence, frugal and forwardness would promote citizens so as to making greater contribution to the society as well as enhance unity and pool strengths. Thus, I agree with the assertion essentially.(18:45)

However, the speaker fails to recognize the fact that ethical and moral standards varies from culture to culture, not to say the highest standards. Even people with same culture background found it hard to reach agreement on ethical and moral evaluation criteria. One egregious example is that people in different countries holds distinct opinion toward sex scandal of leaders. The notorious zipper gate force American former president Clinton to step down early, although he perform perfectly in office. On the contrary, although French prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy is known for his frequently happening affairs, French people did take these seriously. By comparing the destiny of these two amorous presidents, it is easy to find that people’s tolerance toward leader’s sex scandal are of great discrepancy. Highest ethical and morality standards, therefore, are vague concepts that cannot be used to measure politicians’ behaviors. (19:15)

Moreover, effective political leadership also requires going against universal moral standards to serve the interests of public. Actually, the game of politics calls for a certain amount of disingenuousness and lack of forthrightness that we might otherwise characterize as dishonesty. History informs us that withholding certain kinds of information is necessary to avoid public panic and better protects the benefits of public. For example, during the first few hours of the new millennium the U.S. Pentagon’s missile fense system experienced a Y2K-related malfunction. This fact was withheld from the public until later in the day, once the problem had been solved.(19:45)

In sum, effective leaders are expected to maintain higher level of morality so as to treat public with such essential qualities of politicians as fairness, openness. Nevertheless, there are not such agreements on highest moral and ethical standards for officials. Yet, for the benefits of public, official sometimes need to violate some fundamental moral standard—for example, forthrightness. Otherwise, the public might counter riot.(19:55)