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Farmers in Beijing to Get More Power
Beijing's farmers may soon be given the right to know what is going on in their villages and the right to play a part in deciding their villages' future.
However, all of these things are still only promises. They will only be put into effect when the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress (BMPC) endorses new regulations on the organization and election of the city's grassroots administrative bodies, the village committees.
Drafts were submitted by the municipal government to the 11th BMPC Standing Committee on Tuesday, the first day of the Standing Committee's three-day 20th Session.
The Standing Committee's initial reaction seems to have been good, and the new regulations look likely to be brought into effect on October 1, just as the city government had hoped.
Standing Committee member Zhao Jupeng highly praised the drafts, saying the reforms were very necessary and would significantly push forward the improvement of grassroots administration, which the city has been working on for more than a decade.
He said he was quite impressed by what he saw recently in a village in northwestern Beijing's Changping County.
"The people there all play a part in deciding the village's big issues and in coming up with good ways to deal with problems. The village officials and commoners gather together and discuss things as equals," he said.
"Since everybody has played a part in the decision making process, their implementation always goes smoothly," Zhao added.
Beijing started to develop democratic practices in its villages in 1987, one year after the approval of the Organic Law of Village Committees, which allows the country's 900 million farmers to vote for their village heads.
Ninety-five per cent of Beijing's 4,017 village committees have now made the operation of their villages a public affair, although to varied degrees.
Beijing has also held four elections for village officials since publication of the law. Although limited in many ways, the law did lead to the direct election of committees in a few villages.
However, the Organic Law only stipulated some very general rules.
As such, the election procedures were not followed strictly in many villages, admitted Liu Baocheng, director of the Beijing Municipal Civil Affair Bureau.
"The new regulations will make it clear exactly which issues need to be submitted to the opinions of the whole population of a village and how village officials should be directly elected or discharged," he said.
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