China is revising rural election laws to protect the democratic
rights of farmers and promote village democracy in the country's
vast countryside.
"Democratic management" is listed as one of the requirements of
building a new socialist countryside as stated in the 11th
Five-Year Guidelines (2006-2010). Delivering his government work
report on March 5, Premier Wen
Jiabao said: "Building a new socialist countryside must respect
the will of Chinese farmers and strengthen democracy at a basic
level."
"Democracy at a basic level was established two decades ago and
the democratic awareness of farmers has been growing ever since,"
said Wang Jinhua, director of rural affairs for the Ministry of
Civil Affairs.
However, he acknowledged that in some villages, there are cases
of vote-buying and official manipulation in village elections. But
there are no available regulations to which villagers can refer to
seek redress.
There has been a spate of civil unrest in the countryside in
recent years, most of which are triggered by land requisitions.
Wang said this is mainly because of a lack of policies regulating
the matter and mismanagement by rural officials.
Comparing the development of China's grassroots democracy to
teaching a child to walk, Wang said: "It is like teaching a toddler
to walk. It might fall or get hurt, but this is the only way it is
going to learn to walk."
Pingtang Village in Yongxiu county, east China's Jiangxi
Province, was like this "toddler". For villager Ma Zucai, October
30, 2005 was a memorable day for him. He and his wife got up early
that day, took out their ballot papers and headed for the voting
station to nominate candidates for the next village committee.
Just like Ma, 1,285 farmers in Pingtang Village voted that day.
Wu Xiaogen, the village's Party branch secretary, said the election
was aimed at "nominating those who can really serve the interests
of villagers".
"When we had an exhibition in Europe, showing this election case
in China's countryside, the Europeans were amazed at the level of
democracy at village level in China," William Massolin, EU
Co-Director of the Training Program on Village Governance, told
Xinhua.
In 2005, approximately 300,000 villages in China's 18 provinces
had village committee elections.
The Organic Law of Village Committees was approved by a meeting
of the Sixth National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee in
1987 and was implemented on June 1, 1988. In 1998, the law formally
granted farmers the right to directly elect or oust their village
heads and members of village committees.
There is a stronger democratic awareness in villages in the
coastal areas than inland. "To improve basic-level democracy, an
effective system is one thing but it also needs the coordinated
development of the rural economy, culture and education," said Xu
Qida, vice president of the China Civil Affairs College.
"It will take time for China's basic-level democracy to mature;
may be 40 to 50 years," Xu said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2006)