On his inspection tour of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Premier Wen Jiabao stressed that building a new
socialist countryside must proceed from reality, and the will of
rural villagers must be respected.
What he said provides food for thought about both the
interpretation of the core concept of the new socialist countryside
and the way such an interpretation is realized.
Misinterpretation is usually how an otherwise good cause is led
astray, potentially yielding disastrous results.
We have read examples of how local government officials force
villagers to demolish their old houses to build new ones. In these
cases, local government leaders interpret the campaign as building
new houses for villagers and giving rural villages a nice look.
In some cases, corrupt officials intentionally misinterpret a
policy or a concept for ulterior motives. Rather than taking
"building new socialist countryside" as an opportunity to improve
the living standards of rural villagers, some consider it a chance
to make political achievements to boost their chances of promotion
and some take it as an occasion to make profit for themselves.
When rural villagers do not benefit from whatever a local
government does in the name of building new socialist countryside,
it follows that the local leadership must have wrongly interpreted
the policy.
"Respecting the will of villagers" could be understood as a
demand for a pragmatic working style local government officials
need to follow in building a new socialist countryside.
Whatever interpretation of the policy, local government leaders
must keep rural villagers informed of their plans and heed their
opinions because they will bear the brunt of whatever will be
done.
The simple remarks by the premier send a message that building
new socialist countryside is actually a very complicated process
and there should never be a simple, universal solution.
Circumstances vary from township to township and even from
village to village. Local leaders must conduct down-to-earth
investigations to identify the specific problems on the way to the
prosperity of villagers, and then make concrete plans to help
villagers tackle them.
All this requires that local government leaders put the interest
of villagers before everything in making and carrying out their
plans.
We will not be able to realize the goal of building a better-off
and harmonious society unless the living standards of rural
villagers are considerably improved. In this sense, it is a weighty
task for grass-roots government officials to make meaningful and
pragmatic plans for building new socialist countryside.
If they can take Premier Wen's remarks seriously in their
practical work, they will be able to do a good job.
(China Daily November 3, 2006)