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Letters and Blogs
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-02 08:34 Incumbents elect their own sons to be officials It is reported that in an election of local officials in Gushi county, Henan province, most of the newly elected township heads are relatives of serving local officials. Zhou Hui, head of the Organization Department of the country's Communist Party of China (CPC) committee, confirmed the report and argued that they are all qualified candidates and the election was organized in line with relevant procedure. He also questioned reporters: "Don't officials' offspring deserve the right to be elected?" This curious case fits an old saying that "like father, like son", which not only reflects biological heritage but also implies hereditary social status and political power. According to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the opportunity for offspring of officials to assume official positions is 2.1 times higher than those born in non-official families. The crux of the matter in Gushi is that the election procedure is not reasonable and convincing. According to the election procedure, first, more than 60 candidates were selected from the some 270 first-round candidates by local middle-level officials and representatives of retired officials. Then, members of the CPC county committee voted 12 township leaders from the more than 60 winners of the first round. People with common sense can see the procedure is not fair but weighed in favor of officials' offspring. It's actually a case of the incumbents electing their sons and relatives to be new officials. Therefore, effective measures should be taken to guarantee the basic rights and opportunities to those at the grassroots level and maintain social mobility among different social strata. Impartial mechanisms should be put in place to ensure fair competition in both the economic and political fields. Leng Nuan She Hui http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4ab9a8c60100fkzu.html 'Overall quality' a flawed excuse After the national higher education entrance examination in July, it is reported that Linyi Normal University in Shandong province rejected dozens of candidates because they were evaluated to be "low" in overall quality. Skimming through the Higher Education Law, I couldn't find any provisions prohibiting candidates with poor overall quality from entering colleges. Therefore, the rejection is illegal and ridiculous. In my view, while it is justifiable to assess someone according to a series of accepted standards or rules, it becomes unfair once the standards are exposed to individual judgment or even prejudices. Thus, the attempt to bring evaluation of overall quality into the basic criteria of college enrollment is unfair. Now look into the procedures. Students are evaluated by a bunch of high school teachers, who might judge from their personal likes and dislikes, as well as the students' backgrounds, and decide the "overall quality". An online survey shows that 99 percent of the netizens oppose this kind of evaluation as it might give rise to manipulation, rent-seeking and unfair discrimination between the powerful and the powerless. It is the colleges' responsibility to cultivate young people rather than turn them down because they are not yet cultivated. By doing so, a college reveals nothing but its own incompetence. Zhang Hongzhi http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4dab57fe0100fqrz.html (China Daily 09/02/2009 page8) |
