Editorials

Prudence in new practice

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-24 08:03

There was quite a stir when the performance reports of six of the 21 delegates representing the city of Hengyang at the people's congress of Hunan province were published by the local media.

We have heard about lawmakers appealing for and delivering reports on how they carried out their duties as people's representatives. But most of the time, they have been isolated cases based on individual decisions. There have been initiatives to institutionalize the practice but progress has been negligible.

The Hengyang case made a sensation because it is more of a collective effort - six were involved. No doubt that is progress, and we applaud it.

Even as we find this inspiring, we cannot but help wonder why they did not take it one step further and make the good start better. Why only six, instead of all the 21? To our understanding, by endorsing the publication of those six reports, the local legislature appreciates the idea that elected people's representatives have an obligation to report to those who voted for them and they are thus supposed to represent. We know all 21 reported on their performance to the standing committee of the people's congress of Hengyang. Then if making public those reports through the local media is the way to report to their broader constituency, the local public, there should have been all the 21.

Prudence in new practice

After reading the six published reports, people would be even more interested in what the rest 15 have to say about their past year. The conspicuous absence, however, might have them guessing why. Was it because they had nothing to say, or were they shy of what they did, or were they simply not worth reporting? Whatever the case, the public has a right to know.

Again, we have no intention of blaming anyone. We are, indeed, full of admiration for the Hengyang legislature. It has taken a courageous step many of its counterparts elsewhere in the country have been hesitating to take. Given the clarification that it has been pressing ahead "orderly" in accordance with law, we would rather believe this is a sign of prudence in popularizing a new practice.

What we would like the decision-makers in Hengyang to know is that they have started a worthy cause, and that nothing would go wrong in making it universal. After seeing local governments reporting to local legislatures, society needs to see people's representatives report to their constituencies. That is the ultimate approach to demonstrate and enhance the legitimacy of our design of representative democracy.

Procedure-wise, the Hengyang case would have been a perfect precedent had we seen all the 21 reports in the local media, though we find huge room for improvement in the reports published.

(China Daily 11/24/2009 page8)