(Minghui.org) One major aim of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is to establish a party branch in each village and appoint an individual villager to be the local party secretary. That way they can monitor and control people more effectively. However, these village officials are, without their party-given position, no different from their neighbors. Regarding the CCP's corrupt policies, many village officials in fact try their best to procrastinate or simply disregard the associated directives. I have met with some of these officials.
A Village Official Avoids Following the CCP's Ruthless Policies
There is a party secretary who has a high reputation in local government as well as in his village. When I talked with him about the present corruption of the CCP and the dilemma many village officials face, he also felt very pained. Regarding how to handle the issue from upper leadership, he said: “To be a good village official, you have to think carefully and you cannot follow the CCP on the dark road to hell.”
The official talked about the “One-Child Policy” as an example. He said: “For thousands of years, who has heard something like forbidding people to have children? Following our village's tradition, if a family only has a girl, can her mother and father follow her to marry into her husband's family? Even if you do have a boy, how big a burden will he have to carry in the future? I do not care what others think. Although the policy from above is to to plan childbirth and one will be punished if one has more than one child, I will absolutely not intervene if people really want to have more children. We are required by the upper leadership to report the numbers, but I will withhold them as much as possible. Of course, we have to discuss this in the village committee, and everyone agrees with it. If something happens, we just act as if we don't know. Some villages have gone too far in following this policy. Isn't that cutting people's family line? Who will still support you then? They report every single child outside of the quota number and when the fines are required, they will have to force the family to pay 5000 yuan, something that really forces the hardship on the family. In the end, when the village cannot pay the fine, the officials are criticized. At present, the CCP's officials do not really care about how many children you have, they actually just want money. As long as you turn in the money, they don't care how many children you have. There is no other choice but to avoid reporting these cases, and this is the only way for me to deal with it.”
I asked him what he thought about those in the village who practice Falun Gong. He said: “Living in the same village, people are all very close to each other. Why bother them? When the upper leadership inquires, it's easy to just protect the people who practice Falun Gong and not report them. A party secretary of the neighboring village had a Falun Gong practitioner sentenced to several years in prison. Can you imagine what the villagers think of this party secretary? Besides, the people who practice Falun Gong all have good reputations in our village. Isn't hurting them the same as doing a bad deed?”
Village Official Protects a Falun Gong Practitioner
In a village, people are very close to each other. Everyone knows about what has happened in each family, what kind of people they are, and who has done bad things, etc. When it comes to protecting Falun Gong practitioners, some village officials indeed show their sense of justice.
The following is a story of a party secretary:
One day, a policeman from the local police station asked a village official to take him to a Falun Gong practitioner's home. At the beginning, the village official didn't think much about it and got on the road with the police. When they were near the practitioner’s house, the official asked: “What do want to see him for?” The police said: “Just to have a look.” The official said: “Just to have a look? What's so good to look at? Is it so simple? The police faltered: “I have to get him to make a statement and provide a signature.” The village official stopped walking and stood there saying: “What statement? What signature? I tell you that he is the best person in our village, and he is a very kind person. I will make the statement on behalf of him. You are not allowed to even enter his door. You can decide what to do about the signature. If you dare to come to my village again to do this kind of deed, don't blame me for not being polite.” After saying this, the official turned around and left. The police stood there in awkwardness for a long time and finally had to leave too. Ever since then, no one else has come to bother this Falun Gong practitioner.
“Let Him Go Home, or I Will Go With You to Prison.”
There is a village official in our city who did not have much schooling, but had a strong sense of justice. The local police station once sent people to his village to ransack a Falun Gong practitioner's house. Upon learning the news, he immediately got on his motorcycle and rushed over. When he got there, the policemen had already ransacked the house and was about to arrest the practitioner. The village official said: “You can't take him away. Why don't you tell me when you come to my village to search people's homes?” While speaking, he called the village's head and asked him to bring more people over. The police chief knew this village official and asked: “We have found the items, can we take them?” The official said: “What did you find? A hand bomb, or a machine gun? Weren't there just several books? Can she commit a crime with that? The chief police said: “Those are Falun Gong's books.” The village official said: “What's wrong with Falun Gong books? She used to practice. I have promised the town leadership on this issue. We don't have people who practice Falun Gong in the village. If you say she practices Falun Gong, I would tell you now that every single person in our village practices Falun Gong, so what do you want to do?”
More and more villagers gathered. Upon hearing the village official saying this, they all yelled: “We all practice Falun Gong in our village. What do you want to do? The police chief pulled the official to the side and said: “I am not in charge. The upper leadership gave the order to arrest her, how could I not come? The village secretary said: “You came to arrest her. Why didn't you talk to me? Who told you her family lives here? If you are not in charge, how can you decide to take her away? The police chief said: “How about this? I take her away and send her back soon after asking a few questions.” The village secretary said: “I will go with her. If you do not let her go, I will make a big deal out this.”
After arriving at the local police station, the village secretary said to this practitioner while no one was around: “One has to take responsibility for one's actions. You cannot speak about a single one in our village who practices Falun Gong.”
While the police began to interrogate the practitioner, the village secretary called to gather people. After a while, the chief police came out and said: “She is too stubborn and has been talking to me about Falun Gong. How can I explain the whole thing to the upper leadership?” The village secretary said: “I don't care about that. No matter what, I have to take her back.” At that moment, a phone call came from the 610 Office inquiring about the situation. The police chief said: “We are interrogating her right now.” The village secretary said: “Who does the 610 Office want? I will go with you. The police chief said: “What I say won't count, and I can only turn her in to them.” The village secretary said: “Are you shamelessly trying to break your promise? Didn't you say you would release her after asking her some questions? For today's incident, I am not going to talk to anyone else except you! The police chief said: “Let me just detain her for a few days so I can report to the upper leadership.” The village secretary replied: “Nonsense. You can detain me if you want and let her go back. I will follow you to the prison.”
At this moment, more and more villagers gathered at the police station. The police chief asked: “Can you please ask them to go back first, in case this thing gets out of hand?” The village secretary said: “I can send the people back, but if you don't release her today, I will definitely make some trouble for you.” The 610 Office called again to ask about the situation, and the police chief answered: “We haven't found anything. How can I send her to the detention center?” The person from the 610 Office said: “Didn't you find books?” The village secretary took the phone over and said: “Who are you anyway? I am the party secretary in this village and have something to speak to you about. I will take this person (the practitioner) back home. If you need to take her to the detention center, come and find me in the village. I tell you that if you want to take people from my village, I won't let you do it even if I quit the position of party secretary.” After saying this, he hung up the phone.
The police chief looked stupefied. He said after getting the phone back: “I truly admire you. Having a village secretary like you, is really fortunate for your village.” The police chief called the 610 Office back and after talking for a while, he said to the village secretary: “You can take her back.”
In fact, to be a good village official is not such a difficult thing. No matter what kind of society one is living in, if a person wants to be a good official, he will have to take care of the people. Nowadays, if a person is following the communist party, he is not being a good official. The party asks you to reinforce its “family planning” policy and to cooperate with its arresting of Falun Gong practitioners who just strive to be better people. How can we do these things? In the past 10-plus years of extreme persecution against Falun Gong by the CCP, there have been many cases of good people protecting Falun Gong practitioners. No matter what lies the CCP fabricates, these good people are always able to tell right from wrong, and protect practitioners openly or in secret. For village officials who followed the CCP's ruthless orders, when history turns this page, can they blame the Party for all the crimes they committed? Only the village officials who protect their citizens from injustice are truly good officials.
