Draft regulations on making government information public were
adopted in principle by the State Council on Wednesday. The
regulations will be published and take effect after further
revision.
Whatever will be in the final version of these regulations, the
significance of their adoption can never be overestimated.
To have these rules to regulate central and local governments on
their governing transparency indicates the fundamental change in
the concept of the nature of government.
The assumption by many officials that they in their positions
naturally represent the general public lets them assume that they
can make decisions on behalf of the citizens without citizens'
being informed.
With this frame of mind, what needs to be made public to the
general public has become a matter of personal decision.
The cover-up of the real situation of SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome) by some government officials in 2003 was a
typical example.
A lack of transparency for government information can be
disastrous. Without dismissal of officials who lied to the public
about what was really happening with SARS, who knows how many more
people would have fallen victim to SARS and how many more efforts
would have been needed to bring the virus under control.
Behind the wall that separates the public from what they are
entitled to know can be dirty tricks bringing illegal wealth to
corrupt officials while causing harm to the interests of the public
and the State.
Behind that wall was the misuse of Shanghai's social security
fund allegedly involving a cluster of officials including former
Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu. So were other dirty
dealings, the exposure of which has put involved ranking officials
in jail.
These regulations reflect the nature of governments at all
levels as public institutions that govern the country or a region
on behalf of their citizens.
The rules tell government decision makers what the public is
entitled to know about their work.
Being informed is the precondition for citizens' participation
in and supervision of the public affairs that affect their
interests.
From this perspective, the adoption of these draft regulations
is of great significance in building an open, clean and honest
government.
(China Daily January 19, 2007)