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Hong Kong Paper Says Mainland Sticks to Secrecy in Crisis Management

Posted on: Friday, 25 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Text of report by Chan Siu-sin entitled: "Experts attack the culture of secrecy"; published by Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post website on 25 November

Mainland governments still have a long way to go in terms of modern crisis management because they adhere to the practice of limited disclosure when dealing with emergency responses, experts said.

Zhang Ming, director of the Department of Political Science at Renmin University, said governments tended to stick to old, secretive ways.

The Jilin government notified Heilongjiang five days after the toxic spill on 13 November, and the Harbin city government initially only said the water supply would be suspended for maintenance. The Harbin government did not publicize the contamination until Tuesday - nine days after the spill.

"The government has been adhering to the old practice of secrecy in which the higher up you are, the more you know, and the public knows nothing. But this no longer works - we need information transparency," Professor Zhang said, adding that rumours often led to increased panic.

"The incident shows we have a long way to go towards modern public administration," Professor Zhang said.

He said the State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa) was not able to criticize the Jilin and Heilongjiang governments because it was on the same level in China's administrative structure.

"If it [Sepa] is to criticize the two governments, it will need approval from the upper level," he said.

Liu Xutao, a professor from the State School of Administration, said the provincial governments had acted inappropriately.

"The officials thought of dealing with the issue internally first and then making a public announcement, or not at all," he said.

Professor Liu attributed the poor handling to the fear of provoking mass panic, insufficient crisis management experience and the time-honoured practice of covering up blunders.

"If the government does not handle it well, it will lose its credibility. It was essential that the disaster was made public, but how this was done was a matter of strategy - that is, to avoid arousing public panic," he said.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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