OPINION> Commentary
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OPINION> Commentary
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New Year resolutions
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-31 07:49 Eventful. That is perhaps the only word appropriate for 2008. So much so that each of us can name a few qualified entries for the top-10 domestic news roster without a second thought. We saw long-cherished dreams come true: The Beijing Olympics, the first spacewalk by a Chinese, the opening of direct postal and transport services across the Taiwan Straits. We saw humanity's hopeless vulnerability: The paralyzing snow storms, the devastating Wenchuan earthquake. We witnessed the brutality of human sins: The Lhasa riot, the Sanlu milk powder and an industry-wide scandal. And how can the new national leadership lineup, the largest ever stimulus package, and the 30th anniversary of reform escape the discerning eyes of China watchers? What we have been through in 2008 may not make this a particularly pleasant New Year's Eve. Wenchuan is not a bygone episode yet. The new catchword is recession. But today there is no ground for pessimism. We could not afford to imagine how much worse things can get had all the adversities occurred decades back. Even at the saddest moments, either as blizzards cut off power supplies in the icy south, or collapsed cliffs made victim communities inaccessible in northern Sichuan, we did not lose hope, did we? That was confidence. In our country's unprecedented means and capacities, financial and technical. And in the way the government responds. Thirty years of reform and opening up rewarded the nation with an enviable accumulation of wealth. Which not only boosted our capabilities of self-relief in troubled times. Never before has the world counted so much on us for a helping hand, though we are far from being rich. The rescue efforts during the southern snowstorms and the Wenchuan tremor would otherwise be inconceivable. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake was a telling reference.
The world has observed the manner crises were handled here in 2008. From the nasty episodes during the Olympic torch relay to the March 14 riot in Lhasa, the mob attacks on government offices in Wong'an and Longnan, and cabby strikes, our overseas colleagues talked about restraint on the authorities' part. And they all thank the Olympic Games for freedom and conveniences unthinkable in the past. Everybody should have been amazed how timely information was released in recent emergencies. Never before have the authorities been so eager to play the provider of first-hand information. Correspondingly, 2008 offered us otherwise impossible opportunities to have a closer look at an emerging civic China. We have reservations about calling 2008 the year of Chinese volunteerism. We had seen plenty of admirable volunteers before. But we have never seen so many of them in action before. In the two major natural disasters, throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we saw hundreds of thousands of them. In front of the omni-present volunteers, especially the so-called "Bird's Nest generation," many of our previous worries about social morale evaporated. At the darkest moments in the crises and throughout the Olympic and Paralympic events, we were proud of being Chinese. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, through personal presences at disaster scenes and communication with the common folk, illustrated and reinforced their "people first" approaches in difficult times. The reward is handsome. Never before have they found the public rallying so closely around. What else can aspiring leaders expect when they want to achieve? But there were times when people were disgruntled. And not every Communist Party and government official is as popular as Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are. The unrests in Wong'an and Longnan involved criminal offenses. But it would be self-deceiving to take them as simple cases of uninformed public being used by instigators with ulterior motives. Things could not have gone that bad were there no tension or distrust between the public and local administrators. Sociologists and national leaders have correctly forecasted a period when contradictions are frequent. The unpredictable economic downturn will make many of next year's tasks trickier. In order to sustain growth, reforms have to push ahead. But they will have to be matched with more sophisticated balancing moves. In a time when people are more aware of fairness, there is an additional demand for determined corruption busters. Former Auditor General Li Jinhua has retired. It would be great if we do not have to continue placing hopes on lone corruption fighters. We hope this is part of Hu Jintao's and Wen Jiabao's New Year resolutions. (China Daily 12/31/2008 page8) |
