Solve the root problem

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-26 07:53

Authorities should identify the root cause of unreasonable behavior and prevent injurious conduct at its very source, says an article in Qilu Evening News. Excerpts:

A man's 12th attempt in 50 days to jump off Haizhu Bridge in Guangdong province finally came about on May 21 though with an unexpected outcome. Chen Fuchao, a 32-year-old worker on a construction site, climbed the bridge and threatened to jump to make local authorities help him recover his unpaid wages.

After a 5-hour deadlock, a senior passer-by pushed him down the bridge and the fall caused injuries to Chen. Later, both Chen and the man who pushed him over the edge were detained for the alleged offenses of "disturbing public order" and "intentional assault".

Regardless of how unjustly Chen was treated by his employer, he should be made to pay the price for creating a traffic jam and disturbing public order.

Actually, Chen is not the first one to be punished for the "jumping show". In 2006, a man in Jiangxi province was sentenced to one year in a reeducation-through-labor center for the same reason. Yet "jumping shows", as they have come to be called, still happen.

The persistence of this practice indicates that when underprivileged people are driven into a tight corner, they resort to extreme measures even in defiance of the law.

Far from disturbing public order, by such actions the underprivileged people are actually struggling to secure their own rights. They choose extreme actions only because legal proceedings are not an option in view of the high costs involved and lack of access.

To eliminate people resorting to such desperate, if not dangerous, attempts to secure their rights, authorities should consider both sides of the issue and resolve the fundamental problem.

(China Daily 05/26/2009 page8)