Beijing, Nov 3 (IANS) Cases of ‘trust crises’ between local officials and people could undermine the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) ability to govern, warned the People’s Daily, the Communist flagship newspaper.
Public’s lack of trust in local government departments and officials can be blamed for many incidents such as cases of unrest in Zengcheng and Zhili, the daily said in a commentary Thursday.
Zengcheng witnessed rioting by migrant workers and Zhili saw unrest over tax payments to local officials. There was unrest at a rubber plant in Menglian in 2008.
Community-level officials who work directly with the public are considered the face and voice of the Communist party and government, and their behaviour affects the image of the government, Xinhua quoted the daily as saying.
Tension between individual grassroots officials and people could very likely develop into public distrust and discontent with local governments, and this situation would be difficult to reverse, it said.
The ‘trust crises’ could undermine the authority of local governments, lead to official incompetence in handling similar ‘mass incidents’, and a decline in social management capability, and negatively impact social harmony.
Moreover, the commentary said that as the establishment of the CPC’s rule is based on the support of the people, individual cases of public distrust and the amplification of such cases could consume the political resources sustaining the party’s rule.
This is why Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has seriously warned that the party is confronted with the growing danger of being divorced from the people, the commentary said.
The commentary noted that in many mass incident cases, officials’ ignorance of the public’s voice, an absence of due supervision of power and injustice in interest allocations are among the major causes of the problems.
