THE ongoing all-out efforts by the Chinese Government to bring the mainland SARS epidemic under control has helped to restore the government's credit, damaged by the unsatisfactory performance in restraining the fast spread disease in its early stages.

　　If there are any lessons to be learned from this, to the benefit of the government's future administration, a courageous investigation //into// the profound cultural reasons behind the communication impediment between the government and the public is essential.

　　Even a brief review of the nation's thousands years long tradition of despotism suggests: to overcome communication impediments could be a difficult task for Chinese politics to cope with, even in a highly open and dynamic information era.

　　Ignorant masses

　　The major theoretical foundation of ancient Chinese despotism assumes men are not equal in intelligence.

　　Confucius said: "Those who are born with the possession of knowledge are the highest class of men. Those who learn, and so, readily, take possession of knowledge, are the next. Those who learn after they meet with difficulties are another class next to these. As to those who meet with difficulties and yet do not learn; - they are lowest of the people."

　　Mencius, the Confucian master second to Confucius in status, further applied the intelligence ranking to governing: "Some labour with their minds and govern others; those who labour with their strength are governed by others. Those who are governed by others support them; those who govern others are supported by them. This is a principle universally recognized."

　　Therefore, the history of ancient Chinese politics is somehow a history that features how "the noble" ruled "the humble".

　　To evaluate a successful reign, Chinese like to use the phrase Taiping Shengshi which means a stable and prosperous era. To credit stability before prosperity best illustrates the preference of ancient Chinese despotism.

　　As for how to maintain a stable rule, trying to keep the people in ignorance or prevent the people from knowing the truth serves as a favourable tactic which repeatedly proved applicable and effective in ancient Chinese history, when there seemed to be no other civilization superior to that of China.

　　The advantages of keeping the people in ignorance to guarantee a stable rule are obvious.

　　On the one hand, keeping the people in ignorance further strengthens the superiority and authority of the ruling class as "the noble".

　　On the other hand, an ignorant people are far less likely to cause troubles in violation of stability due to their dangerous awareness of potential interests or rights.

　　Such a despicable mentality can be easily found in many of the nation's intellectual classics, some of which were practically used by "the noble" as bibles of ruling.

　　Following are some of the most renowned citations among average Chinese - although more precise scholars may argue for their subtle meanings, which can be difficult to capture even due to differences in punctuation.

　　In the Tao Te Ching, Laozi, the founder of Taoism said: "The ancients who were skillful at the Tao, did not illuminate the people, but rather kept them simple. When the people are difficult to rule, it is because of their cleverness."

　　In the Confucian Analects, Confucius said: "The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it."

　　In the world's oldest military treatise, the Art of War, Sun Zi said: "It is the business of a general to be quiet and thus ensure secrecy; upright and just, and thus maintain order. He must be able to mystify his officers and men by false reports and appearances, and thus keep them in total ignorance."

　　In his first public press conference appearance as new Chinese premier in March 18, before answering questions from reporters, Wen Jiabao said in his opening speech to the Chinese people: "Old China's sufferings left indelible impression in my childhood memory."

　　Powerful nation

　　For Chinese who have witnessed too much humiliation since the Opium War defeat (1839-42), the heartfelt wish behind the premier's words is clear: every Chinese is obligated to dedicate themselves to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

　　Constant domestic trouble and foreign invasion in the nation's modern history have made Chinese understand perfectly: how precious a stable political environment is to the nation's arduous efforts to build a prosperous China.

　　Since the reform and opening up policy was adopted in the early 1980s, the Chinese Government has always firmly put stability as a principle of overriding importance.

　　Though the people's role as masters of the country was stipulated in the constitution and then guaranteed by the people's congress system after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, in daily political practice, the notorious despotic legacy of keeping people in ignorance as a means to maintain social stability was still often used by various levels of the government administration.

　　It was reported in the Beijing-based China Youth Daily that a county government enforced counter-measure against the local brain drain of teachers by banning teachers' access to certain education media publications which were said to "irresponsibly" publish better job offers in other places.

　　Obviously, the harm of non-transparent administration goes far beyond a joke. Government corruption, which has at least partially contributed to some major mass public protests, finally leading to social turbulence in the past two decades, found non-transparent administration to be its favourite hotbed.

　　In recent years, realizing the enormous disadvantages of non-transparent administration and facing mounting pressure in an increasingly integrated world encouraging win-win information sharing, the Chinese government started to advocate transparent administration.

　　"When the complexity of social life reaches a certain level, government intelligence becomes insufficient. The intricacy of the market economy greatly increases the chances of government making mistakes. Although obscure administration can strengthen the government power in certain aspects, the result is superior administration //having// no restraints on the inferior levels so government loses control of its officials.Since the public has no adequate channels to supervise the government, whenever there is a trouble, it becomes formidable,'' said Beijing University professor Yang Fengchun.