Complaints Jam Chinese Governor's Mobile Phones

A whim by east China's Jiangxi province governor Wu Xinxiong to publish two mobile phone numbers to hear public complaints about housing problem has received so overwhelming reactions that the phones were damaged by too many calls, and have to be replaced by new ones, informed sources said.

Since Aug.1 when the two numbers were published, staff of the governor's office had received more than 2,000 calls and over 1,000 text messages from citizens by Aug. 5.

As more calls kept flooding in, the governor decided to double the number of operators to eight on Aug. 5. It also changed the operation time from 16 hours a day to 24 hours.

It was also being prepared to publish the email address of the governor to allow more people express their grievances.

Governor Wu went the call center Tuesday to hear what the public had to say to him.

"All staff in the office should answer the phone with great patience. They should provide adequate explanations and take notes of the problems that could not be solved immediately," he said.

On Aug. 1, the Jiangxi government published three senior officials' phone numbers through a government website and short message service. They included Jiangxi vice governor Shi Wenqing and Nanchang mayor Hu Xian, as well as Wu.

The move was launched to hear citizens' complaints about irregularities in the sales of affordable houses and government-subsidized low-rent houses.

The policies were targeted to China's low income families, which had different standards in accordance with the local region's economy development level. Some citizens provided forged personal information to meet the qualification for a transaction.

According to the governor's office, about 80 percent people called to complain about civil disputes, social security and employment issues. Twenty percent of them complained about housing issues. A very few of them just called to found out if the two numbers were real.

However, controversy remained on whether calling the governor was a proper solution to address public grievances.

A netizen named Woshiqinge wrote on a sohu.com forum on Sunday, saying "the Jiangxi government's act was just another image show".

The phone number issue signified the facts that local government and its operation mechanism failed to obtain credibility from the public; people had to turn to governors instead of a poorly-trusted system, according to a commentary in the Beijing-based newspaper Legal Daily on Tuesday.

The positive attitudes towards the measure said that "it would pose pressure on those related departments and persons who might do wrong in the process," a commentary on Ifeng.com said on Monday.

Also, the move showed a dedicated and serious attitude of local leaders to establish a more transparent and open government, it added.

To test the service personally, a Xinhua reporter got through to the busy line after repeated attempts on Monday, the third day the line was open. The operator, however, refused to answer questions, expressing an attitude of exhaustion, saying "the line was set up for hearing and taking notes of people's complaints only."

While it's natural for people to get tired after fielding many phone calls, an effective system would not get exhausted. What people needed most might be a more practical and highly-efficiency government rather than a governor's cordial attitude, in terms of solving livelihood problems, the Legal Daily commented on Tuesday.