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Commentary: Nandan Mine Worst Accident a Corruption-Caused Disaster
After the occurrence of the world-shocking "July 17" worst mine accident in Nandan, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, colleagues in the media circle, defying the danger of being interrogated and shadowed, and guns aiming at them and daggers pressing against their throats and bellies, have torn down the "black curtain", or the inside secrecy, of the Nandan mine catastrophe.
People are stunned at the sight of the blackness of the "black curtain", it is really incredible that this catastrophe occurred today when the country is under the rule of law, it is virtually like a "special zone outside the law" where the trading of money for power ran wild, vicious power went rampant, guns spread unchecked and corruption prevailed. Corrupt phenomena are listed as follows:
First, The boss of the mine completely disregarded human lives and hid the fact about the accident; local officials helped the wicked perpetrate wicked deeds and assisted in covering up the truth.. Money is so powerful that it "can make the ghost move the hand mill", the taxes turned over to the local authorities by several bosses of the mines accounted for one-third of the county's financial revenue. With the gain of such huge "strength", local officials blocked the passage of information for these bosses, showing their astonishing numbness in regard to this accident, considering the matter as "excusable", otherwise, , wouldn't the annual sum of several million yuan worth of "filial respect fee" handed in by mine bosses be thrown to the winds? The mine boss Li Dongming squandered money like dust as he presented 20-odd Santana sedan cars to relevant local departments and officials and had thus been awarded in return various "laurels" as outstanding entrepreneur. "When you give me a plum, I'll give you a peach in return", thus the trading of money for power has run wild. Such being the case, Nandan of today is not only a place with frequent mine accidents, but all the more is a region with serious, disastrous corrupt practices. The prevailing corrupt practices have led to reducing supervision on the exploitation of the mine to zero and to the ineffectiveness of rescuing work after the occurrence of the mine accident. Just think, if the inside secrecy of the Nandan mine accident was not made known to the public, this open evil activity of trading money for power will continue on, the valuable lives of the people will continue to be gobbled up.
Second, the supervision that should have been instituted has become a means for the mine owner to hide the fact and play tricks. Relevant local departments failed to conscientiously perform their responsibility of legal supervision and allowed the carrying out of illegal mining activities. Investigators from the State Economic and Trade Commission disclosed that the local situation was rather confused. The Xialajia Mine where the accident occurred as well as several other neighboring mines were nominally prospecting and mining, while actually they were engaged in unlawful mining, with regard to safety facilities, they each went their own way, with nobody caring about supervision and management. In its attitude toward these illegal actions, the region engaging mainly in mineral mining, instead of exercising management and supervision according to law and making timely correction, had conversely covered up the fact and played tricks, and "removing calamities for others", which has become the traditional practice of related departments. This practice can really be regarded as "taking others' money and removing calamities for others"!
Let's leave aside the requirements of serving the people and the "three represent's" for the moment, some officials regarded the bosses of the mine as their own parents and lost their basic human conscience. As early as last October, the cave-in of the Dachangzhen No.1 Mine of the county caused the death of 200 people, however, the figure was finally watered down to 38 people.
Third, there were loopholes in the construction of the Nandan local political-legal ranks, vicious forces in the mining area engaged in rampant activities, the "mine-protecting squad" went so far as to possess pistols, submachine guns and even pistols with a silencer. When a reporter from a certain medium under Guangxi Daily was chatting with civilian workers, dozens of hatchet men armed with guns rushed from afar at him and some even aimed their guns at him. When the reporter was making a secret visit, two dagger-armed gang men forced him up to a several hundred-meter cliff, with one knife pressing against his throat, and another against his belly, the gang men declared that "I'll kill you if you're a reporter". The deluge of guns, the rampage of vicious forces and their resistance to media's supervision is really astounding to hear. We believe that local government departments wouldn't be unaware of these vicious forces which were seriously jeopardizing social security and the healthy development of society. They were so outrageous and ferocious in their attitude toward reporter, they were all the more domineering over the common people at ordinary times. As the nationwide campaign to crack down on and mete out severe punishment of offenders and criminal activities has still not ended, vicious forces went so far as to carry loaded guns to commit crimes instead of warding off the force of the campaign, they feared nothing with some people backing them up, this fact shows what real effect was achieved in the said campaign being carried out in Nandan County and Hechi District. When the political-legal ranks serve to protect local economic construction, the prerequisite for this is that they should observe the Constitution and laws and implement the spirit of the "three represent's". If they make no distinction between the good and the bad, and pay attention only to service and not to laws and principles, wouldn't the political-legal ranks become the "protecting god" of Renminbi (People's Currency) and be easily corroded by money and become messengers and mercenaries for unlawful businessmen? From the various strange phenomena appeared after the occurrence of the Mine accident, it can be seen that Nandan's local interests and officials' interests are "closely" linked with those of the bosses of mines, they have formed an unusual "cadre-mass relationship".
The catastrophe of Nandan Mine is deplorable and the "black curtain" of corruption is shocking. The Nandan mine accident was resulted from corruption that brought the innocent people the calamity of being drowned. Without eliminating the pestilence of corruption, people's rights and interests over their lives and property can hardly be guaranteed; without clearing up the "black curtain" of corruption, it will be difficult for people to see the brightness of their future subsistence. The Nandan mine accident is the disaster resulted from corruption. Fortunately, after the "black curtain" was torn down, the accident has attracted the high attention of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the investigation team of the State Council has arrived at Nandan and started working. We believe that the truth about this exceptionally serious accident will finally come to light, the responsible person for the accident, related vicious forces and their "protective umbrella" as well as corrupt Party and government officials who committed dereliction of duty will definitely be severely punished according to law.
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