Working for the public good

New leadership's example in reducing bureaucracy and extravagance is a welcome response to people's concerns

The eight measures put forward by the newly elected leadership of China, aimed at improving the Party's working style, display the new leadership's determination to cut extravagance and bureaucracy and bring leaders closer to the people.

According to the measures, officials should reject extravagance and reduce bureaucratic visits and meetings, the spending on officials' trips and inspections should be kept at the minimum necessary level, and there should be fewer traffic restrictions arranged for their security during official trips to avoid unnecessary inconvenience to the public. The measures also cut the number of people escorting leaders on official visits, eliminate elaborate welcoming ceremonies, regulate the arrangements of national official meetings and major events, and require improved efficiency for official conferences and the issuing of official documents.

The measures show that officials should serve the people, who have become increasingly disgusted by bureaucracy and formality, cheating and extravagance, as well as officials' indifference to and distance from the everyday realities of ordinary people. The public has long anticipated these problems being rectified and a good working style being restored to ensure a clean and upright environment. The eight measures and the example being set by the new leaders are a welcome response to people's concerns.

The Party and government have already introduced numerous regulations and systems to improve officials' work and improve ties with the people. But the latest eight measures passed by the Party's core leadership embody some different and important characteristics.

All of the eight measures are targeted at specific problems that have angered the public, the prescriptions for the remedying of these problems have a high degree of operability, and the top leaders are already observing these measures. The eight measures put emphasis on the construction of the Party's working style and require compliance from members of the country's top authority.

To follow the example of superiors is a long-established tradition in China. The good working style of top leaders will play a positive role in promoting the formation of a good working style at all levels of government. The fact that surrounding roads were not sealed off during the recent inspection trip to Guangdong province by Party chief Xi Jinping shows that top leaders are serious about implementing the new measures. This has set a good precedent for other officials to follow.

The eight measures are aimed at restoring the damaged image of the Party and government caused by their bureaucracy, formalism and corruption. Embodied in the working style of the new leadership, the measures will help officials convert their working style into practical actions that are to the benefit of the people.

Government policies must benefit the people, and Party members, especially leading and senior officials, need to have the interests of the people at heart if they are to secure the endorsement and support of the public.

Putting the people first is fundamental to the Party's work. To do this, officials should see themselves as members of the public, identify emotionally with ordinary people and integrate themselves harmoniously in society. The Party's victories in the past have been achieved with the support of the people.

At a time of socialist modernization and continuing reform and opening-up, the Party still needs the support of the people. It is wrong to take the view that today's economic development can dispense with the people and their opinions and responses.

Without going to the grassroots and connecting with people, officials will remain ignorant of practical conditions. This will result in wrong decisions being made and lead the Party down the wrong road. Also a wrong work style, being divorced from the people and a lack of public supervision can easily lead to corruption.

Compared to the past, the Party and the government possess a greater economic and fiscal power and have more resources and scientific and technological means at their disposal. However, their capability to resolve contradictions and problems within society has declined. The root cause of this is that some officials within the Party have forgotten they serve the people and their work style has gone awry. They have failed to make people's interests their first priority and their work style has divorced them from the people and compromised their interests.

To win the trust and endorsement of the people and restore its declining authority, the Party and the government can take no shortcuts. They must practically improve their work style, resolve the problems that have caused public anger and develop closer ties with the people.

The promulgation of the eight measures is just the first step in this direction. The next step is how to promote their implementation nationwide. To this end, more details need to be laid out and an enforceable accountability mechanism should be established. At the same time, a public monitoring system should be introduced to restore the fine work style of the Party.

The author is a senior editor with the Study Times.

(China Daily 12/18/2012 page8)