 Would you cheer for a civil servant who cleans the streets for you? Recently in Chengdu, a district head led 500 civil servants in sweeping the streets during office hours to promote the Hundred Days' Environment.
Improvement campaign. However, the act has been vigorously criticized by the public. Let's hear what people have to say in today's Media Spin.
A commentary in the Modern Express claims that civil servants are just putting on a show. If civil servants can abandon their tasks and sweep the streets during office hours, they can do everything else they perceive as more important, such as singing karaoke. If the environment improvement campaign is that important, why don't all citizens put aside their work and work together? The ridiculous action simply hurt the public good.
An opinion in the Oriental Morning Post indicates that civil servants doing street work is a unique move by the Chinese government to befriend the public. It is great that the public is questioning the practice now. It resonates with the public request for better civil servants. The writer asks, "Why can those civil servants do something irrelevant during office hours? Are they extras? If so, please dismiss them."
Another writer in Modern Express says no one other than the cleaners will be happy. Whoever needed to submit a request to the government and was affected by the cleaning campaign will be really upset. Alternatively, the writer suggests organizing those officers who are playing computer games or buying shares during office hours to clean the streets. At least they are doing something good for the public. At the same time, we can learn from South Korea by breaking the iron rice bowl of civil servants and making the incompetent ones clean the streets as punishment.
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