Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Bureaucracy regains (a little) sanity - but not much!


I wrote yesterday about the Vietnamese Ministry of Health's plans to ban riders with small chests from using motorcycles, to the amusement (and fury) of many Vietnamese.

My friend Betty S. e-mailed me a link to this report, which claims that the Men From The Ministry are backtracking under the wave of scorn and derision that's come crashing down on them.

The Ministry of Health has agreed to withdraw a controversial health standard for motorists that have raised outcries from people for weeks, saying it is unreasonable and discriminatory.

The new health standard comprises of 83 prerequisites for motorists who want to ride motorcycles that are above 50cc, including an allowable chest size of not less than 72 centimeters regardless of the disabled.

Earlier on, the Ministry of Justice asked the Ministry of Health to stop issuing the new standard, saying it restricts people from using their own means of transportation – a violation of the constitution.

Tran Quy Tuong, the Deputy Chief of the Medical Treatment Agency under the Ministry of Health admitted to making mistakes in building the new standard.

The ministry is going to re-consider the standard, as it might reduce it by 40 prerequisites instead of 83, the deputy said.

An official of the ministry said on Monday that the issuance of health standards for motorists is a necessity. However, he reckoned that the standard included some prerequisites that were unsatisfying to a Vietnamese person’s physical human body.

The controversial standard also restricts motorists from riding motorcycles that are above 50cc if they are suffering chronic diseases such as hemorrhoids and sinusitis, or requires motorists who must be taller in a 1.45 meter and not be less than 40kg in weight.


Note the perennial bureaucrat on the defensive! They're being so generous in now planning to have only 40-odd 'prerequisites' instead of 83! How about knocking them down to no more than a dozen or so?

Bureaucrats! Grrr!

Peter

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