SEND THE LEADERS TO WORK

One of the things I liked about the Cultural Revolution in China was the way big shots were sent out to live among, work among, and learn from the masses.  At least, some of the big shots anyway.  Now, the People's Daily in China, where as we all know the media is muzzled (unlike our free press), and where no one can ever criticize the government, is saying maybe it's time for that sort of thing again.  I'll add my voice to that, but while it wouldn't hurt in China it, here in the US of A it might be the greatest idea since the dead ball era.  Can you imagine?  It's fun to fantasize.

Too many officials perch above the people

(Shanghai Daily)

09:52, September 20, 2011   

To serve renmin (the people), or renminbi (the Chinese people's currency), that's thequestion.

But that should not be a question at all. Chairman Mao Zedong said long ago: Serverenmin. But only a couple of decades ago the question arose when many officialsfound themselves having to serve GDP instead.

In Mao's time, officials were sent to the countryside to be re-educated by poor farmers,and city doctors had to go barefoot to provide door-to-door service for the humblevillagers.

Now officials hide in walled offices and doctors charge exorbitant fees - not everyoneacts this way, but to say "most" is no exaggeration.

So alienated from the people are many of those in power that a high-level CommunistParty official recently found it necessary to reaffirm the Party tradition: Go down and beone with the masses, treat the people as mentors.

Last Friday, Xinhua news agency quoted Li Yuanchao, head of the Party'sOrganization Department, as saying that officials must not perch above the public.

Xinhua dubbed those officials perching above the public as "three-gate cadres." Theirlife has been defined as and confined to a walk from the family gate to the school gateand ultimately to the administrative gate. Seldom have they exposed themselves to lifeat the grassroots.

"How can they serve the people now that they know nothing about the people?" Xinhuawrote. "Indeed, contempt for the people runs deep in the blood of some officials."

The Xinhua article partly explains why the voices of the powerless have often fallenupon the deaf ears of those officials who are no more than the puppets of variouspower groups - from real estate developers to car manufacturers to oil companies.