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Letters and Blogs
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-09 07:53 Labels won't suffice to check official car misuse In order to cut the budget on official cars, a notice on posting special labels on official vehicles was issued by the local authority of Baoding, Hebei province. As an attempt to cut fiscal expenditure and crack down on corruption, the Baoding authority's initiative is a worthy attempt. But whether it will work is still up in the air, because similar attempts in the past have ended in failure. As a matter of fact, posting labels are far from sufficient when it comes to fighting against misuse of official cars for private purposes. First, given the fact that official cars are bought with taxpayers' money, it is necessary to stick labels on them. But these labels on official cars, like those on taxis and buses, function only as social notices rather than a restraining force, and thus have nothing to do with curbing corruption. Second, it is not enforceable if labeled cars are only subject to supervision by ordinary citizens, who are not able to investigate the officials' activities and cannot punish corrupt officials. It would be much more effective and efficient than posting labels if local authorities take charge of supervising official cars' usage with GPS. The best chance of preventing corruption rests ultimately on joint efforts of both the government and the people. Qian Li Ma http://qlmxiangrui.blog.sohu.com/131276834.html Rubbing salt on the wounds If one day, you find that the most-wanted murderer who killed your family members has appeared in your neighbor's house, please hush! Please don't inform the police, don't complain and don't ask your neighbor to turn her in. If you can behave in such a manner, congratulations! You are not "clumsy", you are so "tactful"! This is the conclusion to be drawn from the logic of John Winston Howard, former prime minister of Australia. It is reported that Mr Howard, taking part in a commercial gathering, expounded that when governments come in contact with the Chinese government, they should be pragmatic, because China has been clumsy in its diplomacy. If it doesn't want you to meet someone, it has a habit of expressing it directly. This can be adduced by how they deal with the Dalai Lama and Rebiya Kadeer. This is rather absurd. If Kevin Rudd, incumbent prime minister of Australia, hurts the feelings of the Chinese people by granting a visa to Rebiya, Howard's ignorant comment is akin to rubbing salt on the wounds in our hearts. According to his logic, Australia is not tactful either: when dealing on the international stage, it stubbornly insisted on inviting a problematic figure in spite of the victims' feelings and often proclaimed loudly: I have the right to decide who should be invited! According to his logic, Mr Howard himself is not tactful as he is ignorant of his special status: though he is not prime minister any more, he should not speak as he chooses to and he doesn't pause to consider the bad influence of his utterances. This is not tactful. This time, when Mr Howard jeered at the Chinese government's "tactless" diplomacy, did he realize that when dealing with issues of national dignity, sovereignty and security, there is no tactful way of doing it for any sovereign state? Liu Dongming via e-mail (China Daily 09/09/2009 page8) |
