Local bureaux should make more of an effort to handle most issues ( 2003-11-22 08:53) (China Daily)
According to Zhou Zhanshun, director of the State Letters and Complaints
Bureau, among all cases of people's complaints and suggestions, above 80 per
cent could be solved at the grassroots level.
Therefore, it could easily be concluded that people bothered to write letters
to Zhou's bureau either because their problems could not be resolved by local
governments or because local governments failed to give timely answers to these
problems.
More and more people have been raising issues of concern with local bureaux
in recent years.
But some local governments have failed to address these letters and
complaints properly or timely. As a result, people have to ask for help from
higher levels.
Theoretically, the country's current political and legal mechanisms could
deal with most kinds of people's problems at grassroots level. Different levels
of governments, people's congress, political consultative conference, courts and
institutions settling labour disputes are quite able to help people deal with
their problems. But some of them do not work effectively.
China's political and legal construction should begin at the grassroots.
Whether or not cases of people's letters and visits could be reduced
voluntarily is also a test for China's political and legal constructions.
Although using letters and visits to raise issues is not to be encouraged,
governments at all levels should pay attention to ordinary people's
difficulties.
