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Opinion / Liu Shinan

Brick kilns: Where were authorities?

By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-20 07:05

None of the synonyms for "anger" is strong enough to express the public's
fury at the crimes committed by some brick kiln owners in Shanxi
Province. As reported by the media last week, they had abducted children,
forced them into slave labor, beat them and imprisoned them in the
brickyards.

According to the reports, "nearly 1,000" children were abducted to be
sold to brickyards in several counties in Shanxi. The teenagers were
forced to labor "on all fours" 14 hours a day without sufficient food.

Nobody would believe that such atrocities depicted in movies of long-gone
eras are happening in today's China - 58 years after the Communist
Party-led revolution put an end to the old society.

I want to ask: What were local government officials doing when the
children and other workers were tormented?

The public won't accept responses from the local administration and law
enforcement authorities such as "We were not aware of the case" or
"Nobody tipped us off."

These excuses stem from two possibilities. Either they knew about the
cases but denied the knowledge because they had interest in the
brickyards or because they were afraid of being blamed for dereliction,
or they really did not know.

I don't want to discuss the suspected collaboration between the brickyard
owners and local officials which is yet to be proved. But I want to
emphasize that none of these arguments exempt them from charges of
dereliction of duty given the fact that such blatant crimes happened
under the very nose of these officials for so long a time.

As government officials who claim to be public servants, they have the
responsibility to protect workers. Did the labor administration officials
in Hongtong, Linyi, Wanrong and other counties where the tragedies
happened ever look into these brickyards?

If they did not, they have committed the crime of dereliction. If they
did, then why didn't they see the atrocities the local villagers
witnessed and media reporters and the children's parents from thousands
of kilometers away discovered?

The revelation of the crimes startled and alerted the nation's central
leadership, who immediately ordered a thorough investigation.

Local governments at different levels in Shanxi Province soon went into
action. They issued official documents requesting enquiries, formed
"special task forces for rescuing (the laborers)" and sent investigative
teams to the brickyards. What a hustle and bustle!

A question that automatically occurred to everybody is: Would they have
responded so dramatically if the case had not startled and alerted the
central leadership? I also want to ask: Aren't the things they are doing
now what they should have done long ago? Aren't these their regular
duties?

So far, not a single official at any level in Shanxi Province has stepped
forward to take responsibility or say anything like "I feel ashamed
because it happened in my jurisdiction."

The public would also be justified in wondering whether similar tragedies
- and how many of them - happened in other provinces where they were
covered up.

I know officials would tell me not to generalize from isolated incidents.
"These are just a few rare cases," they would say. And they would demand:
"Do you have evidence to prove they are common?" Of course I don't. But I
also want to ask them: "Do you have evidence to prove they are not
common?"

It seems to me that government officials rather than individual citizens
are responsible for making sure these investigations take place before -
not after - there is cause for public anger.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/20/2007 page10)

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