An inconvenient truth

Updated: 2012-04-10 08:06

(China Daily)

  Comments() Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按钮 0

Since the Tianhe public legal service hall in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, was built with money collected from taxpayers there has been widespread anger at reports that a staff member refused to let a 3-year-old use the toilet, says an article in New Express Daily. Excerpts:

The Guangzhou bureau of justice gave a swift response on its official micro blog after the incident happened, claiming that it would be "a huge security hazard" if it allowed everyone to use its toilets. Though the response deserves credit for being so quickly forthcoming, the claim that using the toilet is a potential security hazard has again produced biting sarcasm from the public.

Perhaps it only reflects how some officials really regard this matter: What if idle people in the society come to wash up or sleep in the hall in the name of using the toilet?

Netizens' criticism prompted the justice bureau to later delete the comment from its micro blog and take a completely different attitude, saying that it had "severely criticized the staff member and demanded a profound self-criticism". This U-turn within such a short time is quite suspicious, but better late than never if it means it is aware of the foolishness of its original comment.

However, it is unfair to lay all the responsibility on an individual staff member since no doubt the scapegoat was in fact following the regulations laid out by superior bureaus. Therefore, it is not the staff member who needs to self-reflect but those who devised the regulations in the first place.

(China Daily 04/10/2012 page9)