Opinion Coming glasnost in China
My last column (Inspirational Wen Jiabao; May 30) invited mixed reactions. While many readers welcomed information that showed China and its prime minister in a positive light....
My last column (Inspirational Wen Jiabao; May 30) invited mixed reactions. While many readers welcomed information that showed China and its prime minister in a positive light,some accused me of trying to mislead Indians into trusting an untrustworthy neighbour with evil designs on our country. I take this criticism as indicating the trust deficit between our two great Asian nations which,I believe,are required by destiny itself to build friendly and cooperative relations for the greater good of the world of tomorrow. Now,is there is a better way of building trust between India and China than for political leaders and intellectuals to promote mutual understanding about what is good in the other society than to simply harp on the bad?
My own perception of China has changed for the better largely because of Wen Jiabao. He is not the countrys most powerful leader; Hu Jintao,Chinas president and communist party chief,is. China watchers,however,know that no other Chinese leader has projected the reformist and human side of the communist rule,both for domestic and foreign audiences,better than Wen Jiabao. In his plain speak and meet-the-aam-aadmi-and-listen-to-him approach we can clearly see how much the communist regime is changing. And change it must,because not everything hunky-dory in todays China,notwithstanding the incredibly dazzling and rapid progress it has made in many areas. The illegitimate marriage of power and money has corrupted governance and distorted Chinas development,something that is even more stark in India. There is widening rich-poor and urban-rural gap,labour-peasant unrest,and a growing spiritual vacuum in society due to the one-sided emphasis on material development. Thanks to the internets spread at blinding speed (China aims to have 100 crore netizens by 2014,up from 41 crore today),the youth,in spite of tight censorship,are debating issues with a critical openness that was unthinkable even a decade ago. Confucianism,Chinas ancient system of ethics-based social order and statecraft,is staging a major comeback in intellectual circles as an alternative to Marxism,with considerable backing from the Hu-Wen leadership. Jiang Qing,an influential Confucian scholar (and a name to watch in future developments in China),has evolved a concept of morality-led democracy that is radically different from both communism and western democracies and,indeed,resembles the Indian thought of Dharma Rajya.
China,clearly,is in creative ferment. And the leader who best articulates the direction in which it ought to move is Wen Jiabao. In a recent first-of-its-kind internet chat with the Chinese people,he exhorted,A countrys power and prestige isnt only a reflection of its economic power,but also a reflection of its peoples quality and morality. The latter is actually more important,in the long-term. An extremely well-read leaderhe has read the meditations on morality by Marcus Aurelius,the Roman philosopher-emperor,a hundred timeshe told Fareed Zakaria in a 2008 interview on CNN: I very much value morality,and I do believe that entrepreneurs,economists and statesmen alike should pay much more attention to morality and ethics. The highest standard to measure the ethics and morality is justice…It is true in the course of Chinas economic development,some companies have actually pursued their profits at the expense of morality. Economic growth without morality is simply unsustainable. In a recent free-wheeling Q&A session with law students in Beijing,he said,We should have a high moral standard and an understanding of truth,law and morality. Morality is the basis of legal consciousness and observance of law. It is higher and more powerful.
Not many intimate details about Wen Jiabaos political life are known. Yet,what is known casts him as a remarkable leader who survived the turmoil in the communist party,caused by the bloody suppression of the 1989 pro-democracy student protests at Beijings Tiananmen Square,despite having worked under two reformist party chiefs,Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang,both of whom were ousted by hardliners. That his survival was not secured by selling his soul became clear when Wen Jiabao recently stunned China-watchers around the world by penning a long essay as a heartfelt tribute to his former boss Hu Yaobang,which was published in Peoples Daily,the communist partys official newspaper,on April 15. I regard it as one of the most significant political writings in the world in our times. Hu Yaobangs name had been almost erased from the Chinese media until recently. And now a serving premiers eulogy for him means that mild winds of glasnost are blowing in China. The essay shows both Wen Jiabao and the ousted party chief (whose death became a catalyst for the Tiananmen Square demonstrations) as sensitive leaders deeply committed to serving the common man. Recalling how,during Hu Yaobangs fortnight-long survey of a drought-hit province in 1985,he was asked by his leader to go incognito to villages and gather correct information,Wen Jiabao writes: He said to me that leading cadres (of the communist party) definitely must personally go to the lowest rungs of society to investigate; to experience and observe the peoples suffering,listen to their voices,and understand the situation firsthand. As far as the work of a leader was concerned,Yaobang said that the greatest danger was separating oneself from reality. Years later,Yaobangs gravely earnest words often still echo in my ears. Shouldnt Indian politicians,too,heed this advice?
sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com
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