Officials must be squeaky-clean before gaze of harsh public eye

Fang Daguo, a member of the Communist Party Standing Committee of Yuexiu district in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province and political commissar of the district's armed forces department, has been suspended from work after being accused of assaulting a female flight attendant last week.

This incident has clearly reflected the power of public opinion. Unlike other officials who have been exposed as corrupt, Fang was punished following the exposure of his rude behavior. The Chinese public demands stringent behavior from officials. Officials have no choice but to keep up with these high standards.

Fang and his friends may feel aggrieved. Most of the time, when there's a conflict between passengers and flight attendants, public opinion is unlikely to support flight attendants. However, Fang is an official.

Therefore, public opinion stood firmly by the attendant in this case. In the Weibo era, Fang's official status has made him unlucky.

In the eyes of many people, officials still enjoy unlimited power, and so should bear responsibility for social problems. Netizens are also continuously pressing for higher ethical standards from officials. Although some of these standards might not be reasonable, they are what people want to see. These conditions are not only strict, but also nonnegotiable.

Good manners should be cultivated since childhood. Many officials without specialized training behave no differently from ordinary people. If the Internet pays a lot of attention to these officials, in the future, there may well be regular cases of officials' public misbehavior exposed.

China's construction of a clean and honest administration is based on a very shaky foundation. Officials' ability to maintain their public image is still very weak. The intensive investigations into officials' behavior actually represent the first round of efforts in the Chinese social morality reconstruction movement.

China's power has long been centralized. The power of public opinion from top to bottom marks the beginning of the real diversification process of China's social power structure. It is unprecedentedly forcing the self-improvement of the authorities. Officials' attention has been turned. They can no longer only pay attention to the higher authorities. They should also focus on public opinion with awe.

Of course, there will be many officials who lag in their response. There will be frictions between officials' actual performance and the requirements of the public. But in the future the gap between the two won't be as sharp as today.

Weibo, which always mixes true and fake information, allows a true sense of the supervision by public opinion in China. We are happy to see that. However, it also brings confusion.

It is worth reflecting on why official supervision mechanisms have been working in such a perfunctory manner. The mechanisms are so weak that the social media networks end up covering trivial matters, which public supervision in other countries doesn't pay attention to.

The publicity department of Yuexiu district's endorsement of Fang is a failure. It has created a negative impression that officials are sticking up for and protecting one another. It has damaged the government's image. All governments should draw a lesson from this incident.

This year, there have only been a few cases where local governments successfully dealt with public crises. Our national leadership should attach great importance to this.

We can discuss what the rationales of public opinion are. As long as public opinion's investigation is based on the facts, officials' political career may be forcibly ended.

Chinese officials should also remember this. This is almost an unbreakable law in a society which allows free public opinion.