In Taishi residents forced to say protest over
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) Beijing seems unsure whether to smother democratic protests in the village of Taishi before the eyes of the world or allow residents to voice their concerns over corruption. Altogether, some 150,000 complaints have been made against public officials in Guangdong province in the first eight months of this year.
The small village has a population of 2,000 and is near the city of Yuwotou in southern Guangdong. Residents' complaints turned into a protest against Chen Jinsheng, an important local Communist party official who was re-elected as Taishi's village chief (mayor) in April of this year.
On July 28, the residents petitioned the local government complaining about electoral fraud and accusing Chen of embezzling funds from the village collective. On July 29 they launched a campaign to remove him from office that included hunger strikes and road blocks.
During the three-month stand-off that followed, local authorities, using more than 1,000 police and water cannon, threw villagers in jail, seized ledger books and paid thugs to beat activists, lawyers and foreign reporters.
They first rejected the recall petition, then announced it had been accepted, only to announce soon afterwards that the villagers had given up their action. The people are now being held hostage in their own village after groups of cadres fanned out to visit each of the 500 households to make them sign the withdrawal document.
"Every household has somebody who has been arrested. They were promised that their family members would be released if they signed, if not, they would go to jail for three to 10 years. The villagers are realistic, so they signed," one source said.
For example, the family of Feng Weinanone of the leaders arrestedreceived a notice saying power and water supplies to their apartment would be cut off. Other villagers were told they would lose their jobs, their children would not be able to go to school or they would be harassed by thugs.
Officials from Yuwotou said that 396 villagers signed the withdrawal statement voluntarily. Only 188 refused to sign.
"Their wives were crying, so the men had to sign," said Lu Banglie, an activist who advised the villagers on recall procedures, and who was abducted and beaten up for a whole day by unknown people.
In one case, Mr Lu said, cadres promised a household of four or five voters about half a hectare of land (1.2 acres) if they would spy for the village committee and help keep Mr Chen in power.
While another activist and protest organiser Yang Maodong is still in detention, the village itself remains guarded by mercenaries who are paid 100 yuan a day to beat up any foreign visitors.
Analysts believe that Taishi started off as a test case for grass-roots democracy when Premier Wen Jiabao said last month that if people could manage a village, they could manage a township in several years. But the experiment seems to have gone far beyond anyone's expectations.
"They [the central government] want to push for democracy but they want to be their own monitor," said Cheng Li, professor of government at New York-based Hamilton College.
In the first eight months of this year, the Guangdong Discipline Commission received 150,000 complaints about alleged corruption over rural land acquisition, cadre misconduct or election irregularities, an average of seven per village in the province.
The Guangdong Discipline Inspection Committee announced at a government meeting in Jiangmen last week that the wholesale audit would start next year, especially for revenues of party and public officials.
Experts note that interest in what is happening in Taishi has grown. If the attempt at grass-root democracy succeeds there, it might spur other villages to do the same.
"Taishi shows the world the ugly side of local government and teaches villagers the value of their votes," Mr Lu said. "In the past, they thought that whoever you vote for, it makes no difference. They sold their votes for 100 yuan or a pack of cigarettes." (PB)
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12/10/2005
