Respect lives and truths

Premier Wen Jiabao inspected the accident site and visited the victim's families in Wenzhou on July 28 after the bloody rail tragedy that killed 39 people. His call for fair and reasonable compensation for the victims, a transparent investigation into the causes, and harsh punishment of the people responsible, is badly needed to shore up public confidence in the overall safety of public transport and other industries in this country.

Displaying his firm belief in solving all problems properly, Wen's comforting presence proves to be effective in cooling the sizzling heat of public anger and doubts that erupted in the wake of the authorities' immediate response to the tragedy.

That is why the first official press conference held by the Ministry of Railways two days after the accident, instead of providing any convincing information, only provoked an angry response from the public. It will take time, maybe quite a lot of time, judging from similar investigations into accidents overseas, to find out the real cause of the disaster. But it is a poor decision to hastily point the finger at the weather as the culprit before all the facts are known, especially when the public wants to know the truth.

Dismissing two heads of the Shanghai railway branch without any real explanation, hasty restoring services before verifying the true cause and burying the luggage and remains of the dead, regardless of their families' feelings, have unfortunately only turned the public anger into fury.

Speculation has sprung up to fill the gaps in the official information and there has been wildly circulating criticism of the rescue efforts.

The ministry's decision to bury the rear-ending locomotive and then later dig it out under the pressure of public opinion and the rescue of a little girl from a carriage that was said to show no signs of life provides plenty of reasons for the public to question legitimacy and efficiency of the rescue work.

When asked about the efficiency and organization of the rescue efforts in his press conference, Wen urged the ministry to answer people's questions about the rescue work.

We have ample reasons to be angry at the ministry's late response and perfunctory decision to resume services before the real cause of the accident has been identified and rectified. We are also anxiously waiting for the truth to emerge. And we believe that people responsible for the accident will be harshly punished and the victims properly compensated. But we should not let our emotions blind us to the nation's ongoing efforts to draw a hard lesson from this tragedy.

How to deal with public opinion during crisis is a new challenge for the Chinese government. It is obvious that respecting people's lives should be made the prerequisite for government efforts to deal with and prevent any similar accident.