As the two-day working conference on public letters and complaints came to an end on Thursday, senior officials again stressed the necessity for reinforcing the system overseeing public complaints.

State Councilor Hua Jianmin said the letters and complaints system is an arrangement with strong Chinese characteristics. It is an important way to facilitate communication between the government and the people, protect people's rights and interests and help the government make correct policy choices.

Over the past several decades the system functioned well in achieving these targets and also played an important role in checking corruption and stopping false policy practices.

However, numerous problems also arose at the same time, either because of defects in the system arrangement or abuse of the system itself.

In the first instance, departments processing letters and complaints are part of the governments at all levels. And the complaints made in letters or by individuals are primarily against administrative branches or officials.

As a result, whether or not complaints are taken seriously or treated properly depends almost totally on the administrative authority itself.

Apparently, the presumption is that such an arrangement works on the absolute trust of a self-disciplined government, rather than putting the system under the supervision of others.

In China, people's congresses at all levels are the very organization meant to supervise government.

As a matter of fact, there have been suggestions from experts that the organs processing public complaints should be made subordinate to the people's congress.

Thus, self-discipline of government is switched to external supervision, which is maintained by a balance of power and is proven to be much more effective in practice.

Another important flaw in the current system arrangement is that the letter and complaint organs have not been afforded enough power to work effectively. Their usual practice is to forward complaints to relevant departments and ask them to initiate probes or take necessary action.

Such routine, when abused, can have serious consequences.

All too often, letters of complaint have been circulated among different departments and finally seized by the official or the departments that were complained about.

Guo Guangyun, a civil servant in Hebei Province, lost his job, health and nearly his life because he was found writing letters disclosing the corruption of Cheng Weigao, former governor of Hebei Province.

Though Guo was dubbed an "anti-corruption hero" after Cheng was expelled from the Party last summer, his losses over the prior eight years can never be regained.

More common cases involve forwarded complaints that more often than not are ignored by the "relevant" departments and the letter and complaint organs have no avail to intervene.

Listening to the complaints of the people is an important way to improve the government's work. The channel piping such voices must be cleared and the complaints must be taken seriously.

Improving the letters and complaints system is the correct response to such a call, and will benefit both the government and the people.

(China Daily 05/15/2004 page4)