It was once the philosophy that the army should make a young man tougher. Complaints could be dismissed out of hand and dissatisfied recruits learned to live with their lot, believing it was all part of the soldier's life.
So when Private Zhou Zhengtao went to the hospital of his People's Liberation Army (PLA) division in Beijing, he wasn't surprised that the doctor and nurse treated him with disdain.
"A cold reception from military hospital staff is just part of life for low-ranking soldiers," says Zhou.
As was his squad leader's casual disregard of his complaint.
But then Zhou turned to the military intranet.
He e-mailed a complaint to the division commander. To his surprise, the commander ordered the hospital staff to treat the soldiers properly.
"My squad leader told me to keep it to myself, but with the intranet, my complaint reached the division commander directly," says Zhou.
ON-LINE COMMAND
In 2001, local area network (LAN) connections entered the barracks, allowing soldiers to read news and study military websites, and watch movies on-line and download music.
Many units opened a "senior officer's mailbox" through which soldiers can directly e-mail commanding officers, either under their real names or anonymously.
"Before, if I wanted my opinion heard by the division commander, I had to report to my squad leader; if he thought it necessary, he would report to his superior and so on till it reached the commander, but it would be lucky to survive filtering through six lower officers," says Wang Yangyang, a private with the Beijing Military Area.
"We used to just keep our mouths shut because some problems are so common that mid-level officers can ignore them and soldiers just learn to live with them, but now everyone's willing to speak on-line," Wang says.
The PLA has encouraged anonymous mailboxes, accessible only to the sender and recipient, with the sender remaining nameless, for sensitive issues. Officers answer questions such as "Why can't soldiers use cell phones?" and "How are senior officers evaluated? " (More)
Source: Xinhua
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