-- By Chen Sha

In last September, BBC opened a net page for viewers to choose top thinkers from human history in the past millennium. Of these, the first three were Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin, with Karl Marx topping the list.

Sometime ago, I went on a visit to Western Europe. On my way to Bonn I also called at the Congressional Edifice of Germany and saw that up on the structure is a giant picture of the three great men Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and V. I. Lenin.

Last July also saw a pageview established for viewers to decide by ballot on a list of great men in the past millennium following a proposal of presidents and deans from various higher educational institutions in Hong Kong. Of the 50 giants chosen for their great influence in history, Dr Sun Yatsen, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping had been placed at the top of the list.

As things stand in UK, Germany and Hong Kong, their social system and social ideology can in no way be compatible with those in the socialist countries. But why and how could those men with their socialist doctrines as Marxism enjoy such great popularity and esteem among men today? More than one hundred years past, Karl Marx with his doctrine as Marxism had been labeled as "ghostly" or a "monster". But why has Marxism been so popular and widely accepted by people all over the world? Of the multitudinous changes having been wrought, of the great evolutions, contrasts and exchanges from antagonisms of different social systems and of the great complexities induced therefrom, what directions and warnings are to be provided by all of these? Public opinion polls equal no man's will. They are neither a regime's constitution nor decisions of a political party. This underscores the unique power and eternity of those great men with their Marxist doctrines and socialist theories.

A hard fact is that history gives nothing pathetic but things all fair. There lies the resplendent future of Men. It tells us that all great men with their thinking facilitating progress and the advance of civilization belong to the whole progressing mankind instead of a few or a small minority. Irrespective of turns and twists and setbacks met, evil epithets applied, seemingly strong pressures exercised and all possible din set up by various politicians in an attempt to run amuck in history, they can blur or obliterate not the least the direction of historical development, soil the splendor of giants. Contrarily, greater brilliance will shine forth from these giants.

What matters is not only in a greater recognizance but also in a deplorable forgetfulness and obliteration of Marxism by a few people. Sometime before, a newspaper in our country published an article. When recalling and commenting on those of economists with the greatest influence exerted in the past millennium it may have either been too careless to mention or simply refused to recognize the fact that there was a Karl Marx. This is a news medium of communistic brand. Marx was the initiator of the Communist Party and it was this great man who had first with his thinking on economics changed the advance course of human history. Such carelessness or a slip error may not be so great as it should have been when compared with the great achievements made by tens of hundreds of news media including this newspaper in developing and spreading Marxism. But we should be aware that such an error or slip has been found at the root of our brain especially at a time when Marxism has come to be generally recognized and accepted by people on a greater world scale. It goes without saying there is the problem that should deserve our close attention.

Though some people waver in their stand on Marxism, history has not. Some people have become muddle-headed but history has been in complete sobriety. The whole race of mankind has been in full consciousness and sober minded. In this situation, is it demanding for us to try our best to keep in pace with the march of the time, the developments of modern civilization and the advancing steps of those of genuine Communists?