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Power is fine, but duty is more important

By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-13 07:07

Wang Ying is extremely happy. She is a 40-year-old Bai minority doctor attached to a clinic in Southwest China's Yunnan Province. But that's not the reason why she's happy. Rather the satisfaction of playing a role in setting up rural clinics across the province is.

As a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) for four years, Wang has conducted research on medical resources and highlighted the lack of healthcare in Yunnan's remote areas.

"I'm glad to see the health ministry and NPC listing my motions and taking steps to tackle the problem. Now rural clinics have been set up across the province," says Wang, unable to hide her smile. The clinics set up through her efforts have benefited millions of rural residents.

Delegates at the fifth session of the 10th CPPCC. Xinhua

"A quality advise or motion submitted by a deputy to the NPC should be for the good of the people, and the support of the country's top legislature and government bureaus is needed for their implementation," she says.

Like Wang, more than 2,900 NPC deputies have tried their best during the past four years to fulfill their role of supervising the functions of the government and judiciary bodies, and to fight for the well being of the common people.

NPC's motion-handling bureau statistics show deputies have raised 2,978 motions and given 23,232 pieces of advise during the last four sessions of the 10th NPC.

An overwhelming majority (97.8 percent) of the deputies are satisfied with the government bureaus' action to address their motions or advise, says He Yehui, deputy secretary-general with the NPC Standing Committee.

Examples of NPC deputies doing a good job are too many to be listed, He says. For instance, Li Zhuqi, an NPC deputy from Beijing, completed his mission of supervising a government body with success. "It's sacred to be an NPC deputy, and above all, we have the power (to change)," Li says.

What might have made Li emphasize his "power" is the country's first regulation on management of natural science foundation, which was implemented last year thanks to the unrelenting efforts of Li and his colleagues. "Through my years of work with the foundation, I know the loopholes in its management have jeopardized the sacredness of academic research and wasted tax-payers' money," Li says. And "it was time to bring an end to all that."

Through rounds of discussion with and valuable advise from fellow deputies, Li prepared a "supervision rule", and submitted it to the NPC in 2004.

The paper detailed every process of the foundation's operation. "The new regulation issued by the foundation last year contained a large proportion of my suggestions and would prevent corruption in the academic field," he says.

While Li fights against corruption in academia, NPC deputy Wu Haiying's struggle is to bring water to the arid central part of his Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. A scholar with the Ningxia Social Sciences Academy, Wu found to his horror that about 10 Ningxia counties got less than 150 mm rainfall a year.

"Last June, I was shocked to know that some families still had to drink water stored in September 2005, when the area got its last rainfall," Wu says. An average rural family spends about one-third of its annual income to buy water, which could be as expensive as 60 yuan a barrel.

Mao Fengmei (left), a village leader from Northeast China's Liaoning Province, suggested the government lift the tax on the special agricultural products before farmers began growing more cash crops. Yang Shizhong

Pained by the suffering of the people, Wu proposed a series of measures to ease the water shortage. Important among them were adhering to water-saving agriculture and building water facilities, work on which would begin later this year. "I'm lucky to be an NPC deputy because a piece of my advise can become a policy and help many people," says Wu, speaking on the sidelines of the NPC annual session.

Mao Fengmei, a village leader from Northeast China's Liaoning Province, shares Wu's feelings. Mao, too, believes in contributing his share to help improve the country's rural policies so that farmers could lead a better life.

At the turn of the millennium when the country proposed that farmers grow more cash crops to raise their income, Mao suggested the government first lift the tax on the special agricultural products. "The suggestion won a thunderous applause. People without rural experience won't be able to speak for the millions of farmers and come up with such a suggestion," Mao says.

But being an NPC deputy is a very demanding job. They not only have to come up with suggestions to help the people across the country, but also have to keep abreast of the latest happenings. For instance, last year the NPC held 16 training projects so that the deputies could learn how to carry out a proper investigation and increase their knowledge about certain key areas.

Wu surmises a deputy's work thus: "The NPC job is demanding, and we have to keep teaching ourselves to better fulfill our role."

(China Daily 03/13/2007 page8)