The Kunming Daily, a government-run newspaper of
Kunming, capital city of Yunnan Province, publicized the city's
senior officials' telephone numbers along with the description of
their duties in its February 16 issue. These contents, occupying
four full pages, attracted an incredibly large number of readers
and that day's newspaper sold out immediately. A thread on a
website called www.clzg.cn,
covering the data has also become extremely popular. Moreover, the
newspaper has reprinted and widely distributed the February 16
issue in order to make the information accessible to more local
readers.
This publication has become a hot topic among the people who
were attending a meeting of the Kunming Municipal Committee of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) that
opened on February 16. Many of these political advisers regarded
the exposure as a positive move taken by the local government. But
some others disagreed and presumed that it would have some negative
impact on bureaucrats' daily operations, possibly generating
telephone harassment.
Wu Tinggen said that the exposure would not only help ordinary
citizens to make their voices heard by the governments but also
help the authorities to supervise their subordinates.
Liu Shuwen noted that the exposure would undoubtedly pressure
the officials to some extent. On the other hand, it could serve as
the driving force for them to do a better job. Liu did not believe
that disturbing calls were likely if officials properly served the
public.
Zhou Hailian believed that the exposure could not count much in
regard to improving government operations. He said that the
government should introduce a series of detailed measures to inform
ordinary people how to proceed if they wished to contact
governmental officials for help and to ensure that the officials
will effectively respond to the public's concerns.
(China.org.cn by Pang Li, February 18, 2008)