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Rectitude deposit handed to curb corruption
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-07 10:50 Pan Xingsheng, a new directly
elected village head in Xinchang County, Zhejiang Province, handed in 2,000 yuan
(US$240) to his village committee as "earnest money." It will not be refunded if
he violates the "village decrees" during his three-year term.
Pan is only one among more than 100 village heads elected this year in the
county. They have all paid earnest money to their respective village committees.
The practice started last year, when the county began to popularize village
decrees.
"The earnest money will be a reminder for me to keep calm when I make
decisions on village affairs," Pan said.
Named after Shici village for which Pan is serving, village decrees were
praised by political experts as the embryo of autonomy. Adopted by a popular
referendum at Shici Village in June 2004, the rules are being carried out in
one-third of the 400 villages in Xinchang.
Embracing 26 articles in six chapters, the Shici Village Decrees cover
village setup, responsibilities of village committee members, meetings and
decision-making, accounting, transparency, punishment for rule violations and
breach of duty.
Pu Zhijiang, a senior official in charge of organizational work at the
Xinchang committee of the Chinese Communist Party, said the idea is making an
impact.
"Village decrees have helped shift grassroots rural governance from
authoritarian rule to institutional arrangements," Pan said.
In the past there were no rules about decision-making, management or
supervision. Village heads, though elected democratically, in some cases did
what they wanted.
One of the direct results from the absence of regulations and supervision was
rampant corruption. Many cases have been documented around the country.
But village democracy is incomplete with mere elections, politics experts
said.
Chen Suijun, associate professor with the research center of agricultural
modernization and rural development at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, said
village autonomy is a sort of political regime. He said democratic elections
should be integrated with democratic decision-making, management and
supervision.
In many rural areas elections are the only democratic process.
The Shici village decrees may initiate a trend, Chen added.
Similar rural democratic institutional arrangements are also being
implemented on a trial basis in other parts of the country.
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