|
Laws are not made to be broken
2005-08-05
China Daily
Yet more devastating coal mine blasts have rocked the country, bringing misery to impoverished industrial communities.
The latest tragedy claimed 24 lives in Yuzhou, Henan Province, on Tuesday night. Poisonous gases choked the helpless victims to death because a proper ventilation system had not been installed.
On July 17 an explosion in the city of Fukang in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region killed 83 people.
The death traps have already snatched away 2,779 precious lives in their hellish tunnels and shafts this year not counting the victims of unreported mining tragedies.
Investigations have brought to light an appalling fact. Most of the scenes of destruction were either being run illegally or did not have necessary safety and life-saving facilities in total contravention of half a dozen national laws and many more local regulations.
China is most probably the only country in the world to have enacted a law in the very name of the subject to be regulated The Law on Coal of the People's Republic of China.
In an industry where safety should be the name of the game, lawmakers have racked their brains and exhausted their professional expertise to put in place a whole set of rules in a desperate attempt to ensure no more coal be extracted tainted with miners' blood.
An apt example of how legislation should work wonders is in the United States. In the first half of the last century, the United States had a mining death rate that Americans would find hard to believe today. The turning point came in 1969, when the Coal Mine Safety and Health Act was enacted and vigorously enforced.
But legislation did not work out in China the way it did in the United States. This is down to a difference in the will to enforce the law.
It is necessary to properly diagnose a disease before treating the patient. To bring about change in China, the reasons for failure must first be exposed.
To many local governments, coal mines, whether operated legally or otherwise, are the golden geese that help lay huge amounts of tax revenue, making a large contribution to local GDP and creating jobs for millions of redundant rural labourers.
Complicating matters further are local officials, many of whom rest on their laurels, happily advancing their government careers. At a time when labour is getting cheaper and coal dearer, decisions are more often than not made by the forces of the market. The geese must be kept alive by any means, they argue, to avoid losing the eggs.
Sadder still, many safety law enforcement officials, who are supposed to ensure fair play, have thrown themselves into the darker side of the game while trying to keep up the veneer of authority.
On a number of occasions, law enforcement officials have been found to be either the overt or covert owners of mines where tragedies have taken place.
Corruption at the forefront of law enforcement has prompted China's top safety official Li Yizhong to repeat his warning: "Stop it. Now." Best wishes to him. May his voice be heard and heeded.
Coal mining is not the only sector where laws are made and then ignored. Foreigners with little knowledge of China may have the misconception that people in this vast land are living in a state of lawlessness. As a matter of fact, China has enacted far more laws and regulations than could possibly be imagined.
Despite voluminous legislation, both at the national and local levels, to ensure food hygiene and safety, food processing and packaging plants continue to churn out substandard and sometimes contaminated products from toxic rice and biscuits to noxious bean sprouts.
Law enforcement officials, as usual, swung into action only after the damage had been done.
But China does have a city where people pride themselves on having a strong record in law enforcement. The government of Hong Kong issues daily public ads on television and in newspapers; has hoardings at vantage points and posters in public places, exhorting people to follow a healthy and hygienic lifestyle. It encourages the public to report corruption. The public is advised to take precautions against diseases and guard against infections. The list is practically endless.
A colleague who spat on the pavement on his way to work was stopped in the street. In a polite but firm voice he was told: "Spitting in a public place is punishable by a HK$1,500 (US$180) fine. Please report to the district court on Thursday." He was also given a civic awareness lesson.
Earnest and tenacious enforcement of rules has brought Hong Kong into line.
Laws are made to cultivate an orderly, harmonious society and to discourage human frailties such as greed and selfishness characteristics we all know are sometimes difficult to resist. Without enforcement, laws are mere recommendations.
Spare the rod and spoil the child may no longer be the ideal way of bringing up a son or daughter. But what should parents do if their child becomes unruly and wild? Warn, set rules, scold and then punish.
To combat the chaotic state of affairs in the mining industry, government officials and legal experts have called for new legislation. What is the point of enacting new laws when the existing ones are barely enforced?
|
