Necessity of public participation

It is obvious that while both subsistence and development are our basic human rights, they may clash with one another if the interest of various groups of stakeholders is not well balanced, with more gains going to certain groups but others on the losing side.

A case at hand is a planned hydropower project on the Nujiang River in Southwest China's Yunnan Province. The compensation program for the peasants to be displaced includes payment of 200yuan for every mango tree to be inundated. However, from each mango tree the peasant originally could earn 400 to 500yuan a year. Such compensation could hardly sustain the displaced peasants' current living standard, which is barely up to the national average.

Here comes the necessity of public participation.

If we look into the miscalculated city renewal projects and those polluting enterprises which now make people suffer, we could see they share one thing in common: Public participation was missing in the process of decision-making on all these projects. In the absence of public participation, decision makers who were preoccupied with the solutions to some pressing problems are likely to neglect many people's long-term interest. Then the result could benefit some people at the expense of others' welfare, as in the case of narrowed sidewalks for pedestrians to give more space to automobiles.

Suppose the decision makers are influenced by selfish advisers who have personal interest involved in the projects, the result could be worse.

Therefore the public should have a say in decisions about actions that affect their lives. Through the process of interactive and constructive dialogue, different stakeholders – officials, designers, citizens, scholars, young and old, rich and poor, could sit together and communicate their interest. Although the final decision may not satisfy everyone's expectation, it should be a compromise acceptable to all, since it would address to all the concerns.

In fact, public participation is not just a procedure to democratize the decision-making process but an essential means to honor and guarantee our human rights. Article 21 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights adopted by the United Nations 60 years ago provides that "everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country;" "everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country;" and "the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government." This lays the principled ground for public participation as a human right.

Our own experiences, positive and negative, have proven the necessity of involving the public in policy or decision-making on issues concerning their own life. This guarantee of their rights is also for the sake of social justice and equity.

To date China has ratified five of the seven major international human rights treaties. All of them require the public consultation in the preparation of periodic reports on their implementation to the related UN bodies.

Forms of participation

While the Universal Declaration gives an emphatic provision of election and suffrage for the public to take part in the government, public participation is not confined to electing chief public servants. In modern society featuring complicated interest pursuits, no single person, however democratically elected to a leading position, can represent all the interest groups on all issues at all time. Although the system of people's congress – the legislature in China – embodies the public will in many aspects, it is only one of the many forms of public participation, although it is a very important form and channel for the public to participate in politics.

Another form is the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which as an advisory body with extensive representation of various social strata has played a positive role in democratizing the decision-making process. However, both the people's congress and the CPPCC function more in the mapping of major national or local policies. It is impossible for them to address every specific issue involving clashes of interests of different stakeholders.

In the past few decades, governments at various levels have invited scholars in various fields to be their advisors, and would consult them before an important decision is made in the hope to guarantee the rationality of the decision. This marks a progress in democratization of decision-making process. But in reality, the "dissidents" among the experts are often excluded from the consultation. And the advice from an exclusively expert panel may not be representative enough of all stakeholders' rights.

In this context, another form of public participation has emerged, which is the public hearing on issues concerning the public benefits. Up to the end of 2005 more than 2,000 hearings had been held across China on matters ranging from bus ticket or cooking gas pricing, income tax threshold, ban on fireworks, to renovation projects of public properties. It has become a platform for ordinary Chinese to present their voices on issues they are concerned about, and help make the final decisions more scientific. And the public policy will be more popular if ordinary people have contributed in its making process.

Public participation is also necessary in the supervision of the implementation of public policies and law enforcement. Many government departments in recent years have designated people of different occupation as supervisors of their work, to monitor commodity prices, performance of government officials, and so on. This kind of public participation proves effective to improve the government work and guarantee people's rights.

Obstacles to be overcome

Despite the progress China has made in expanding the public participation to democratize the decision and policy-making process, there are still obstacles to more adequate public participation.

A foremost obstacle is the inadequate legislation. It is encouraging that state leaders have urged government officials at various levels to promote public participation, and several laws have incorporated public participation as essential in policy or decision making, including the Law on the Environmental Impact Assessment, the Law on the Administrative Punishment, the Law on Administrative Licensing and the Law on Pricing. Yet the move is rather sporadically written in some specific laws, and the public participation is mostly witnessed in hearings on pricing, legislation and some administrative moves, but is absent in many projects immediately affecting people's life, like land leasing, neighborhood renovation and city renewal projects.

And the selection of representatives to hearings may not be scientific and democratic enough so that every group of stakeholders can have their voice heard. In some cases, the representatives are randomly designated by the sponsor at their own will, whose independence is questionable.

Another obstacle comes from some officials' resistance to the process for fear of possible inefficiency it may incur. For a long time there is the misconception that efficiency should be given priority while equity should be secondary to it in the drive to accelerate China's modernization. Actually, however, the efficiency is not what the decision making process should pursue – numerous decisions made rashly have led to disasters and even human rights violations in reality. What a desirable decision making process is fair and just, with opinions of different stakeholder groups fully aired before an agreement or compromise is reached to reflect interests of all the groups. This process might be prolonged, but the result is more likely to bring about efficiency.

The lack of necessary information is also an obstacle to the public participation. This problem involves another human right – the people's right to know. The effective and genuine public participation must be informed participation. Or it may be reduced into simply a showcase. Then the people have the right to know what their representatives have presented at the public participation sessions, which means minutes and memorandums of such meetings should be made public.

On their part, the public should be made more conscious of their rights to participation and become capable to do so. A problem in China is that there are not many interest groups capable to present a different voice, and there is the tendency that those whose voices are louder may receive greater attention while the rights of the silent majority can be neglected.

By all means, the public participation is not so alien to us. Decades ago, the Chinese leader Mao Zedong put forth the mass line of "from among the people and to the people," which mobilized and motivated millions of Chinese to pool their wisdom and strength to win the liberation and independence of the Chinese nation. Only in recent years that some in the leading position forget this fine tradition of ours and turn a deaf ear to the broad masses at grassroots. If we are going to pursue comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development that features mutual improvement and common development of material, political and spiritual civilizations; balanced growth between urban and rural areas, different regions, economic and social undertakings; and fosters a harmony between man and nature, we must do an earnest job to observe the people's rights to participate in decision making on matters concerning their welfare.

(The author is Former Executive Editor of China Features, Xinhua News Agency. )

(The speech was delivered at the first session of the Beijing Forum on Human Rights.)