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Officials' suicides raise questions about corruption
By Zhao Wei |
March 24, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CONVENTIONAL wisdom has it that government officials are people who are least likely to commit suicide, given their relatively high social status, decent education and greater job satisfaction.
But the unusually high number of suicides of Communist Party of China and government officials reported since last year in China has fueled speculation about the changing landscape of China's bureaucracy.
More than 20 suicides have been reported in China's bureaucracy since the beginning of 2009, with six in December alone. Three cases in March added to the list.
Zhen Lifu, a 51-year-old senior political adviser in Jiangmen of Guangdong Province, was found dead after hanging himself near his home last week. The municipal government said in a statement that Zhen had long suffered from insomnia and depression.
On March 8, Liu Xiaofeng, 49, head of the local audit office of Ongniud Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, jumped from the eighth floor of his office building. Local government sources revealed Liu had developed depression, but declined to disclose more details.
Five days earlier, Li Jianrong, 36, then head of Lufeng County's water conservation bureau in Yunnan Province, jumped from his sixth floor office. He died after first aid treatment. Li killed himself because he was stressed with drought and quake relief work, according to a statement by a joint police and local government investigation team.
Insiders say that new rules to make government bodies more accountable and their work procedures more transparent are making life harder for civil servants, or just as hard as for workers in other sectors.
Adding to the pressure on those troubled minds are the government campaign to weed out corruption and the increasing public supervision by millions of Internet users, says Shen Jianming, head of office of the political consultative conference of Cixi under the jurisdiction of Ningbo city of Zhejiang Province.
Although there is no specific data on the exact motivations in the suicides by 20 officials, many believe that a considerable number chose to end their lives because of complications in corruption cases.
For those officials who contemplate suicide for fear of punishment, there is no easy remedy. "This unusual high number of suicides should serve as a serious warning to other officials to be honest and clean," says professor Lin Zhe of the Party School of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China.
Of the official suicide cases since the beginning of 2009, most of the local governments concerned were reluctant to disclose information about investigation results. This triggered speculation about possible corruption and chains of corrupt officials.
Sources close to the inspections say some of the cases are related to corruption but others are not. Professor Lin suggests that a transparent, timely and authoritative information disclosure system should be established for investigation results.
However, as Lin points out, information disclosure should protect the privacy of innocent family members and relatives of the victims.
(The author is a Xinhua writer.)
But the unusually high number of suicides of Communist Party of China and government officials reported since last year in China has fueled speculation about the changing landscape of China's bureaucracy.
More than 20 suicides have been reported in China's bureaucracy since the beginning of 2009, with six in December alone. Three cases in March added to the list.
Zhen Lifu, a 51-year-old senior political adviser in Jiangmen of Guangdong Province, was found dead after hanging himself near his home last week. The municipal government said in a statement that Zhen had long suffered from insomnia and depression.
On March 8, Liu Xiaofeng, 49, head of the local audit office of Ongniud Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, jumped from the eighth floor of his office building. Local government sources revealed Liu had developed depression, but declined to disclose more details.
Five days earlier, Li Jianrong, 36, then head of Lufeng County's water conservation bureau in Yunnan Province, jumped from his sixth floor office. He died after first aid treatment. Li killed himself because he was stressed with drought and quake relief work, according to a statement by a joint police and local government investigation team.
Insiders say that new rules to make government bodies more accountable and their work procedures more transparent are making life harder for civil servants, or just as hard as for workers in other sectors.
Adding to the pressure on those troubled minds are the government campaign to weed out corruption and the increasing public supervision by millions of Internet users, says Shen Jianming, head of office of the political consultative conference of Cixi under the jurisdiction of Ningbo city of Zhejiang Province.
Although there is no specific data on the exact motivations in the suicides by 20 officials, many believe that a considerable number chose to end their lives because of complications in corruption cases.
For those officials who contemplate suicide for fear of punishment, there is no easy remedy. "This unusual high number of suicides should serve as a serious warning to other officials to be honest and clean," says professor Lin Zhe of the Party School of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China.
Of the official suicide cases since the beginning of 2009, most of the local governments concerned were reluctant to disclose information about investigation results. This triggered speculation about possible corruption and chains of corrupt officials.
Sources close to the inspections say some of the cases are related to corruption but others are not. Professor Lin suggests that a transparent, timely and authoritative information disclosure system should be established for investigation results.
However, as Lin points out, information disclosure should protect the privacy of innocent family members and relatives of the victims.
(The author is a Xinhua writer.)
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