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Comment: Deputies' increasing awareness of performing duties welcomed

By Sun Shangwu (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-11 11:07
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"We definitely want the Deputies to contribute more ideas to deal with problems haunting the public."

My decade-long experience of covering the two sessions, widely known as NPC & CPPCC, has numbed my excitement of seeing pretty ethnic minority deputies in flamboyant traditional costumes, or celebrities chased by swarms of reporters outside the Great Hall of the People.

But I am really impressed by the increasing awareness of NPC deputies and CPPCC members in performing their duties.

For a long time, many people in China got used to praises being piled on the government report by NPC deputies. The report, which usually summarizes the government's work in the past year and reveals the plan for the next, was given by the premier to the opening full session of NPC.

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"The report is excellent, I have learned the premier's report earnestly and I will bring back the main points to instruct our work."

This answer was very typical and popular on the TV screen in the past.

But more deputies are now calling for "telling the truth" and are not hesitating to expose existing problems for the government.

Furthermore, NPC Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo told government officials to face inquiries and interrogations from NPC deputies, a move seen as important and substantial in overseeing government.

According to our Constitution, the central government, Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate are under the supervision of National People's Congress.

So deputies are here to find problems in the government report so as to better improve their work. They are definitely not here to "learn" the report.

And CPPCC members, who are seen as the country's political advisers, are supposed to be more critical in pointing out the shortcomings of the government.

On Wednesday, the eight-minute speech made by CPPCC member Zhu Zhenzhong was interrupted nine times by applause from his fellow members in the Great Hall of the People. Zhu accused some local officials of doing work just to "please the superior" so as to get promotions, while disregarding the public resentment.

The increasing awareness about better performing their duties according to law is important in Chinese political life. If the two sessions become the true platform for deputies and members to voice public concerns and find practical solutions to widespread problems, the public will better appreciate the concept of a "people's congress".

Some deputies and members made the news by putting forward some unique ideas, such as asking husband to pay salary to wife for household work. It is their right to raise all kinds of ideas, but we definitely want them to contribute more ideas to deal with problems haunting the public.