The truth finally prevailed, when Shaanxi provincial forestry bureau officially admitted on Sunday that it had erred about a photo of a wild South China tiger by farmer Zhou Zhenglong from Shaanxi province.
Although the local government's effort to clean up the mess has become banner front page headlines in the media across the country, netizens have made it clear that they don't feel victorious. I share the netizens' frustration because the whole farce has exposed quite a few pitfalls in governance and academia.
What should have taken professional photographers at most a day to verify whether the photos were doctored took eight months for the bureau to reverse its previous authentication, with the help of the local police.
There is no way to count how much taxpayers' money has been wasted and, above all, how much the government's credibility is harmed.
We now know for sure that 13 officials were involved and their purpose, unfortunately, was to support the scam.
Do a search on the Internet and every episode of the farce is still as vivid.
As Guan Ke, the bureau's then press official, admitted, "My passion overpowered my reason".
The passion aside, we could also sense the avid eagerness for accolades. After all, Zhou Zhenglong was soon awarded 20,000 yuan for his "discovery". The town and county governments were making use of the news to attract adventurers and tourists, hoping to reap more revenues.
The passion and eagerness made the officials involved to sidestep almost every established procedure for verification before coming clear with the news to the public.
For instance, Guan said that he was shocked to hear, after the press conference, that the forestry officials of the town and the county had not made the required field trip to the site where Zhou Zhenglong took the photo of the alleged South China tiger.
We can easily detect ignorance among the officials as well. Guan said he went to the site afterward to check against Zhou's photos and talked with the local villagers.
"I couldn't find any loopholes in the photos," he said.
But there was ample evidence to suggest otherwise. A biologist who trekked in the forest in the area knows almost all the local plants by heart. He pointed out that there is not a single plant in the area that has leaves as big as the one over the tiger's forehead.
How come Guan and others simply overlooked the scientific evidence?
They also have their own scientific support. Unfortunately, the public has heard very little what these scientists said. And according to a roster, none of these scientists is an expert on tiger.
But how come the local forestry administration could sustain the sham for eight months?
We can still hear Zhu Julong, who is fired as deputy director of the provincial forestry bureau, vouch for the genuineness of the photos.
In a documentary by CCTV aired on December 6, Zhu is seen saying: "Taking off my wushamao (ancient Chinese official hat that has become synonymous for official posts) if my judgment is wrong; (if my error) affects adversely Shaanxi province as well as government's credibility..."
We have to question who has given Zhu and other officials the right to use their power to smear the credibility of the government and dilute the public trust in it.
From the lessons, I think the public has the right to demand stricter systems of checks and supervision to prevent government officials from abusing and mishandling their powers.
This has been a farce over a fake photo, but continuous neglect would lead to more serious matters, such as those concerning life and death.
(China Daily July 3, 2008)