Gimmick ruins public's questioning of officials

DURING A RECENT LIVE BROADCAST ON LOCAL TELEVISION, the heads of Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, were given flyswatters by people in the audience as a call for greater anti-corruption efforts. (Low-ranking corrupt officials are often referred to as flies.) Daily Sunshine, a newspaper based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, commented on Wednesday:

It is understandable that the Nanning live television broadcast assigned some of the audience to present flyswatters to the local officials, as it improved its ratings. But, in essence, such a television program should be more about certain officials responding to public concerns and residents participating in local governance, not entertainment.

In other words, the officials invited to the live broadcast are supposed to address residents' concerns about administrative inefficiency and incompetency in a sincere manner, with or without the flyswatter stunt. Many of them did a good job when answering some embarrassing questions, without trying to evade or deny them.