http://www.pragoti.in/node/4587
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Wukan in Context
The Arab Spring...followed by the Bersih 2.0 movement in
Malaysia...followed by the Indignado movement in Spain.. followed by
the Occupy Protests in the United States... followed by the protests
against electoral malpractice and more in Russia ...and now protests
in the Wukan village in China? It is easy to make a comparative
assessment of the incidents in Wukan village in Guandong province in
China with the other protests against power in various parts of the
world and say that this is just a re-enactment against authority.
Authority could be differentiated - be it dictatorship in the Arab
world, oligarchy in Malaysia, two-party duopoly in Spain, financial
capital and plutocracy in the United States, atypical Kremlinology of
the Putin variety in Russia, but there are commonalities - the pursuit
of policies that are skewed in the interests of capitalists,
speculators, the rich and against common people. So is Wukan on
similar lines?
In the case of the Wukan protests - directed at local communist party
and government officials over a land deal - it seems that the higher
leadership of the Communist Party effected an immediate reprisal over
corrupt officials in accordance with the villagers? wishes. The
controversial land deal has also been cancelled. It seems to be a case
of the ruling party pre-empting the burgeoning of the protests against
its authority in general. But questions arise if this can be
replicated elsewhere and whether the apparatuses of the Communist
Party ruled state are democratic and robust enough to address peoples'
concerns about displacement and loss of livelihoods.
This article in the Diplomat has an interesting drift - the party?s
attempts to bring about a reasonable denouement in favour of the
aggrieved people in Wukan cannot be generalised, as the outcomes in
Wukan were more due to inner party dynamics. Wang Yang, the secretary
of the Guandong provincial committee of the CPC, played a vital role
in the peaceful outcome in Wukan, by sympathizing with the protesting
villagers. This solidified his claims to be incorporated in the CPC?s
politburo standing committee in the forthcoming Congress. Other high
profile CPC leaders like Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai have also
adopted a similar route towards acquiring popularity. He is credited
for launching a serious crackdown on organised crime in Chongqing in
2009, arresting over 2000 gangsters. Wang Yang was Bo Xilai?s
predecessor in Chongqing.
But protests in China are rising. There is a lot of discontent with
the model of growth in China, which while bringing economic prosperity
during the reform period, has also involved rising inequality among
social classes and between urban and rural areas. Thousands of popular
protests take place in China every year, mostly against land grab by
corrupted party officials. Real estate is a major component of China?s
growth story, and there is widespread apprehension about a real estate
bubble.
To maintain its legitimacy, the CPC often punishes its own party
officials in order to distance itself from corruption. For instance,
Chen Liangyu was dismissed as party secretary of the Shanghai
municipal committee in 2006 and jailed for his involvement in
siphoning off money from the social security fund. Xi Jinping, who
took over as the Shanghai party chief following the scandal, went on
to become a Politburo Standing Committee member and is expected to
succeed Hu Jintao as Party chief and head of state later this year.
Earlier, in 1995, Beijing mayor Chen Xitong was also dismissed and
jailed for corruption. But skeptics maintain that these punishments
merely amount to scratching the surface.
While the Communist Party seems to be cognisant about the problems of
corruption and rising discontent against land grab
(http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7693306.html ;), it still
remains to be seen if there would be a definite shift in the policies
of the CPC and the Chinese government - from an export driven, state
capitalist model of growth to a truer socialist vision as its
Constitution claims. And whether indeed there is a truer
democratisation within the Communist party as it is besieged by
complaints of sleaze and graft at various levels of leadership.
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Best
A. Mani
--
A. Mani
CU, ASL, CLC,? AMS, CMS
http://www.logicamani.co.cc