"Living Buddha Hall Official" Luo Tingcai: Don't Believe in Marxism-Leninism, Believe in Ghosts and Gods, Fraud Over 5 Million Yuan in Poverty Alleviation Funds to Build Temples

　　Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, January 30.

　　Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter Ziqiang

　　Defrauding funds to build temples, interfering with the work of grassroots political power, proclaiming himself a "living Buddha" and coercing villagers into superstitious activities... In September 2022, Luo Tingcai, former member of the party group of the General Office of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress, and the former head of the discipline inspection team of the Provincial Disciplinary Commission stationed in the Provincial People's Congress He was expelled from the party and transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution according to law.

　　On January 29, 2023, the Intermediate People's Court of Yuxi City, Yunnan Province heard the case of Luo Tingcai in the first instance, and pronounced the verdict at an optional date.

The Luo Tingcai case is a profound warning that strengthening the education of ideals and beliefs of party members and leading cadres must not be relaxed for a moment.

Illegal defrauding of agricultural materials to engage in feudal superstition

　　Luo Tingcai was reported by the masses five years after his retirement, and was investigated by the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision in February 2022 and took detention measures.

　　The Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision found that from 2013 to 2018, Luo Tingcai used the influence of his position to declare a total of more than 5.66 million special funds for poverty alleviation and agricultural assistance to taxation, finance, state-owned enterprises and other departments and units on the grounds of building infrastructure in his hometown. Yuan, changed the use of funds without authorization, built temples and engaged in illegal activities in Piaochang Village, Gulinqing Township, Maguan County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, his hometown in violation of regulations.

　　After investigation, since June 2013, Luo Tingcai privately ordered He Moumou, then head of the villager group of Piaochang Village, Hong Moumou, the construction boss, and several villagers to dig mountains and break up soil to occupy collective land without reporting for approval. The nine-story Yunhai Pagoda, which means "nine-five supreme", was built, and then the Yunhai Temple was expanded, and thirteen Buddha statues were placed. It was officially opened to the public in June 2018.

　　During this period, Luo Tingcai greeted Wang Moumou and Zhuang Moumou, who were the party secretary and mayor of Gulinqing Township at that time, several times, and asked him to use all the funds he coordinated for the construction of Yunhai Temple.

In order to promote the construction of Yunhai Temple, Luo Tingcai held a mass meeting in Piaochang Village in 2016, encouraging everyone to elect his confidant He Moumou as the leader of the village group, and let Kong Moumou, who had been elected with a high number of votes, become an accountant.

　　Due to the lack of legal approval procedures, the ethnic and religious department of Maguan County requested to close and clean up Yunhai Temple many times, but Luo Tingcai resisted.

　　In order to legalize Yunhai Temple, Luo Tingcai organized 12 villagers to participate in the "Three Refugees" training program at a famous temple in Kunming, and asked the abbot of the temple to apply for a refuge certificate for each villager. Ben Zhi".

In addition, he arranged for villagers to submit conversion certificates and related declaration materials to the Ethnic and Religious Bureau of Maguan County, and applied for approval of Yunhai Temple as a temporary religious site on the grounds that "there are a certain number of religious believers in the village."

The Maguan County Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs found that there were no Buddhist believers in Piaochang Village, and the villagers who had applied for conversion certificates did not believe in Buddhism themselves, so the application was rejected.

　　After Yunhai Temple was built, Luo Tingcai also organized 14 contributing farmers to collect money by selling incense and collecting merit money, which aroused opposition from the local masses.

In June 2019, the Maguan County Government closed Yunhai Temple for cleaning.

　　In addition, the reporter learned that Luo Tingcai also had violations of discipline and law, such as colluding to resist organizational review, participating in cooperatives in violation of regulations and encroaching on the interests of the masses.

The reason behind it is worth pondering

　　Luo Tingcai joined the army in 1976, joined the party and was promoted in the army.

After retiring in 1991, he worked in the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province. He served as a member of the party group of the Yunnan Provincial Audit Office, the leader of the Disciplinary Inspection Team assigned by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection to the Provincial Audit Office, and a member of the Party Group of the General Office of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress. group leader.

In January 2017, he retired as an inspector of the General Office of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress.

　　Luo Tingcai grew up in the army, and worked in law, auditing, and discipline inspection for most of his life. He was supposed to be a model of law-abiding and righteous, but in the end he went astray and lost his life.

The reasons behind the case are worth pondering:

　　——Wrong ideas are at work, and ideals and beliefs are collapsing.

　　When investigators from the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection searched Luo Tingcai's home, they couldn't find a single Marxist-Leninist book, but there were many Buddhist scriptures, and there was a Buddhist shrine enshrined in the house.

　　According to Luo Tingcai's confession, as he grew older and his position was promoted, he gradually developed the idea of ​​"the boat arrives at the dock and the car arrives at the station", and gradually relaxed his personal requirements.

He wrote in his confession: "When I was lost, I no longer went to the organization to talk, but chose to sit in the temple and listen to the monks talk about Buddhism and ghosts and gods. Gradually, I put Marxism-Leninism aside. In the back of his head, he became obsessed with feudal superstition, and he only wanted to build pagodas and temples, to protect future generations, and to let his soul have a place to rest after death."

　　——The concept of political achievements is disordered, and official morality is not cultivated.

　　Luo Tingcai prides himself on his high position and authority, with a domineering style and arrogance.

According to his confession, he is in charge of personnel and discipline inspection work in the Audit Office of Yunnan Province, and he has "two knives" in his hands. As long as he submits an application for funds, no unit or department will not give face.

He believes that building a majestic temple in a remote hometown is a kind of political achievement, which demonstrates personal ability and can be remembered through the ages.

　　Gao Moumou, the former villager group leader of Piaochang Village, said that Luo Tingcai claimed to be the 14th "living Buddha" besides the 13 Buddhas in Yunhai Temple in Piaochang Village, and asked the villagers to obey him.

He also boasted to the villagers that he is a high-ranking official, and he can guard the "leader" of the village, and the villagers can guard the "tail" of the village.

　　——The supervision of the unit is not in place, and the functional departments are conniving.

　　Li Jiangbo, Director of the Second Supervision and Inspection Office of the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, said that Luo Tingcai's case occurred not only because of his loss of ideals and beliefs, but also due to the lack of supervision of the unit and the connivance of functional departments.

"Before the incident, many leading cadres visited Yunhai Temple, but no one raised objections or advised against the obvious violation of regulations." Li Jiangbo said.

To strengthen the education of ideals and beliefs of party members and cadres must be unremitting

　　According to the case investigators, Luo Tingcai defrauded the state's funds for poverty alleviation and agricultural assistance to build pagodas and temples in violation of regulations, resulting in many adverse consequences: it undermined the use policy of the state's special financial funds, and made the party's poverty alleviation policy fail at the grassroots level; it hindered the long-term development of the countryside; image is negatively affected.

　　When the special work team of the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision came to Piaochang Village to visit and investigate, the masses expressed their anger at Luo Tingcai's behavior of occupying land, competing with the people for profit, and corrupting people's morals.

　　In September 2022, after studying at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and reporting to the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee for approval, it was decided to expel Luo Tingcai from the party, cancel his benefits, confiscate illegal income, and transfer the suspected crime to the procuratorate for review and prosecution in accordance with the law.

　　Shen Bin, deputy dean of the School of Government and Management of Yunnan University, believes that Luo Tingcai's case shows that some party members and leading cadres still have a weak sense of purpose and loss of ideals and beliefs, highlighting that strengthening the education of party members and leading cadres to strengthen their ideals and beliefs is urgent and a long-term task. System engineering must be constantly grasped and unremitting.

　　"Luo Tingcai slipped into the quagmire of feudal superstition in the leadership position at the department level. It is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. If he strengthens his own study at ordinary times, he will not be easily confused by superstition; if the superior leaders, party organizations and discipline inspection and supervision departments Strengthen education supervision and management at ordinary times, fully grasp his thoughts and life dynamics, and intervene in time when he finds bad signs, so that he will not make mistakes again and again." Shen Bin said.

　　Li Jiangbo believes that the case of Luo Tingcai has exposed regulatory loopholes in the appropriation and use of financial funds, especially agriculture-related funds. There are problems that have been dismissed and left alone. It is necessary to improve the system and mechanism and strengthen the supervision of the whole process.

We should continue to carry out clean-up and rectification work, and seriously investigate and deal with leading cadres' illegal interference and embezzlement of agricultural materials.

(Xinhuanet)