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Get to the root cause

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-03 07:37

The violence triggered by the death of a student in Weng'an county of Guizhou province shook not only the local government seat physically last week but also people in other parts of the country psychologically.

The question on many minds is how a minor incident could develop into such a riot that resulted in the ravaging of government buildings, including the one of the local public security bureau, and injuries to 150 people, including policemen in the town.

What the provincial Party chief Shi Zongyuan said scratches where it itches. He said that there must be deep-seated reasons behind the incident such as the accumulation of social contradictions, the stockpiling of disputes and residents' grievances against the local government.

These are only phenomena abstracted by the Party chief and behind them must be many minor things that have been handled by local officials in an unfair or rough manner. And there might be instances, in which local government officials infringed upon the interests or rights of local residents by abusing their power.

The detention of some 20 people who were involved in the violence and further investigation into the student's death are necessary steps for local police to get the situation under control and restore social order. But it is one thing to bring those who have committed crimes in the riot to justice, and it is another to address the root cause of the incident.

As with a disease, the burst of violence against the local government is just a symptom. And it is possible some bad elements took advantage of it to vandalize public properties or cause injuries to lives. Bringing them to justice and restoring normality is just to get rid of the symptom, but it is far from touching on the root cause of the disease.

The former is easier to do while the latter is much harder and takes a much longer time.

What deserves a serious afterthought by the local government should be the urgency of a thorough overhaul of its work style and even an investigation of possible bad apples among the rank of its civil servants.

If it can really find out why local residents are so upset with its work and dig out some bad apples, whose decadence and depravity have tarnished its credibility, it will then be much easier for it to mend its relationship with local residents.

A good job in finding out the root cause of the incident may possibly serve as a reminder for other local governments and help them preempt similar violence.

(China Daily 07/03/2008 page8)