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China's legislators have contributed a record number of motions
and proposals to the annual parliamentary session this year, with
about 10 percent of them focused on issues concerning farmers.
"We received a total of 1,374 motions and more than 3,180 pieces
of proposals from members of the NPC by Wednesday," Peng Yibing, an
official with the General Office of the NPC Standing Committee,
said Thursday. "About 10 percent of the motions are issues on
agriculture, rural areas and farmers."
As a matter of fact, most of the motions address the daily life
of people, particularly, those people in abject need, he said at a
briefing.
The annual session of the NPC, scheduled to close Sunday, paid
special attention to the concerns of the ordinary people on the
sidelines of state matters this year as the new leadership has set
forth the concept of "putting people first."
"The central task of the Party and the nation," "major issues
concerning reform, development and stability" and "immediate
interests of the majority of the people" will be the three key
spheres for the NPC Standing Committee to work with, Wu Bangguo,
chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, told the current NPC annual
session.
Legislation on the issues of "immediate concerns" to common
folks tops the list of laws slated for examination or deliberation
this year. They include the laws pertaining to property, bankruptcy
of enterprises, correction of unlawful acts and state of
emergency.
A number of laws to be amended this year, including foreign
trade law, corporate law, securities law, auditory law as well as
laws involving epidemic diseases prevention and treatment and the
disposal of solid wastes, are also of the same category.
"In legislation of social and economic affairs, we should hinge
on the scientific approach based on an overall, coordinated and
sustainable growth," Wu said. "We must bear in mind the principle
of 'putting people first'."
The NPC is the highest organ of power in compliance with the
Chinese Constitution, and many common citizens pin high hopes on
its 2,984 deputies from around the country. From the farmers'
income to control of bird flu, and from private property rights
protection to food and drug safety, its deputies this year brought
with them proposals on topics covering almost all aspects of social
and economic life.
Motions and proposals are the two main written forms in which
legislators voice their views. Usually, they are classified and
forwarded to special NPC committees, the State Council or the
judicial organs to handle.
Except the members of the NPC Standing Committee, the NPC
members are not full-time legislators. They could be local
officials, scholars, business people, policemen, army officers,
lawyers, teachers, drivers, sportsmen, workers or farmers.
The NPC Standing Committee organizes several inspection trips
annually for its members to investigate into the enforcement of
laws. Recently, such trips became crucial to help ordinary people
ease their worries and overcome their difficulties and
hardships.
In three months from July to September last year, it sent
inspection teams to five provinces to learn about the enforcement
of the Construction Law as mounting problems with quality of
buildings and defaulted payment of migrant laborers' wages had
surfaced and became increasingly serious.
"We found numerous problems during the study tours of
less-developed areas in east China's Jiangsu Province," recalled
Yan Yixun, a member of the NPC Standing Committee who took part in
one of the field trips. "On the issue of unpaid wages to migrant
laborers, for example, we found that one-third of the wage arrears
were owed by the local government. Our team has come to recognize
that to solve the problem the government must act first."
Following these field trips, the NPC Standing Committee made a
host of proposals to the State Council. After Premier Wen Jiabao
himself helped a farmer in southwestern China's Chongqing
Municipality to get wage arrears back, a growing number of
government departments followed suit to help migrant workers.
The NPC Standing Committee urged the State Council last year to
control SARS, dispose of medical wastes and sewage waters, prevent
and control bird flu, among other similar issues of immediate
concern to the people's life. Many of its proposals were
accepted.
Tens of thousands of people across China write letters to or
visit the NPC Standing Committee for complaints regarding the
malpractice by local government or judicial departments each year.
The Committee received more than 31,000 visitors along with
57,000letters of complaints last year alone.
"The letters of complaints and visits from the people constitute
an essential channel of the NPC and its Standing Committee to
acquaint themselves with the concerns of the people,"NPC Chairman
Wu Bangguo told the parliamentary session. "It is an important part
where we should base our supervision on. We must keep improving our
work in this aspect."
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2004)
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