Democracy and courage
Jeremiah Jenne, who blogs at Jottings from the Granite Studio, referred to the following article from the Christian Science Monitor.I'll second Jenne's comment, "You want to talk about courage?" Here's a story about how the Chinese system works at the grassroots level.
A Chinese experiment in democracy meets fierce resistance
" When Fang Zhaojuan began organizing her neighbors here to impeach village leaders whom she suspected of corruption, she had no idea that the challenge would lead her first to the hospital and then to jail.
"She was following the law, after all, and had launched legal petitions signed by a large majority of villagers. They believed they had been cheated of proper compensation when their village council had sold land for industrial development to the government of a nearby township.
"Mrs. Fang, her family, and colleagues on a recall committee, however, found themselves plunged into a violent political drama. This, they say, has shown residents of the hamlet just how narrow the boundaries remain for their democratic rights. It has also, they add, hardened their resolve to enforce them...
"Chinese law prescribes direct democratic elections for village councils, and provides for recalls if a majority of villagers lose faith in their leaders. 'But that is only the law,' cautions Yawei Liu, head of the China Program at Atlanta's Carter Center... 'Once you move into the real world it is very difficult to enforce,' he adds...
"'At any point in the process the authoritarian system can come into play' to frustrate villagers' democratic aims, says Kevin O'Brien, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied village governance in China for years. 'This story is an example of bottom-up democracy being swamped by undemocratic people who are used to giving orders.'
"On the other hand, Dr. Liu points out, "'he beatings and the jailings are a reflection ... that the villagers are so keenly aware of their rights there is nothing else the government can do.'..."
Labels: China, democratization, dissent, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:04 AM
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