Govts should spend wisely

The governments should think of their priorities before using their limited revenues to reward celebrities, says an article on the website www.china.com.cn. The following is an excerpt:

Famous film director Zhang Yimou and athlete-turned-entrepreneur Li Ning were both awarded Guangxi Excellent Contribution Award and 1 million yuan ($145,450) by the government of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Dec 4. This has sparked widespread criticism by the public.

The netizens generally believed that it is alright for governments to give rewards to successful people like Zhang and Li, but they should use moral encouragement as the major form of reward rather than money.

Guangxi is an economically backward region where limited government revenues should be first used to subsidize school dropouts and improve the basic social security system. It cannot resonate with the public if the government there on the one hand calls for support from the central government and donations from the society to reduce poverty, and on the other spends millions of yuan rewarding celebrities like Zhang and Li.

More importantly, the money used to reward them were from taxpayers. This type of money should be used more in the works of public interests and people's livelihood.

(China Daily 12/10/2008 page8)