Transparency, not hiding, can help desensitize govt staff salary issue

ACCORDING TO REPORTS, several provinces plan to adjust the salaries for employees in government agencies and State-sponsored institutions. The public response to the news, which they interpreted as "raising salary for officials", prompted the provincial governments to delete the news from their official websites. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

Those getting rich always have government backgrounds, that's the impression of the public, and that's why the salaries of government staff have become so sensitive. People worry that the income gap between them and government officials might further widen.

Yet the local governments' response to people's concerns, namely deleting the news from their official websites, won't help desensitize the issue. That's just trying to stick their heads in the sand and will only attract more attention from the public. They cannot pretend public opinions don't exist.