Mr Science is here, where's Mr Democracy?

文章标题：Mr Science is here, where's Mr Democracy?
文章作者：Ching Cheong
发表日期：2009年5月5日
发表媒体：《海峡时报》Straits Times

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) yesterday celebrated the 90th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement with a strong dose of patriotism. President Hu Jintao gave a speech urging university students to uphold the “glorious banner of patriotism” that had propelled the movement.

The May Fourth Movement marks an important chapter in the history of contemporary China. On May 4, 1919, a massive student demonstration broke out, demanding “Mr Science and Mr Democracy”. The protesters saw these two protagonists as pillars of a modern and civilised country.

Patriotism was indeed the driving force behind the movement. It was sparked off as soon as the Chinese learnt that their central government had acquiesced to Japan’s 21 demands to transfer the German concessions in Shandong Province to Japan after Germany’s defeat in World War I.

Massive nationwide demonstrations that followed forced the central government to retract its acquiescence.

But what distinguished May Fourth from all other student movements was not just patriotism but its call for science and democracy. This was why historians called the movement the Chinese Renaissance, likening it to 17th-century Europe’s enlightenment.

Since then, democracy has become a dream of the Chinese .

It was this dream that gave birth to the CCP. A key leader behind the movement was Professor Chen Duxiu of the Beijing University. A devoted Marxist, he founded the CCP two years later.

The newly minted CCP fed on democracy and eventually defeated the ruling Kuomintang (KMT).

An iconic episode illustrates how the CCP won over all the other players. In 1945, CCP leader Mao Zedong had a famous dialogue with influential middle-of-the-road political figure Huang Yanpei on how the party could avoid the historical pitfall that saw feudal dynasties rise and fall.

Mao’s reply was terse: “We have found a new road, this is democracy.” When the dialogue was beamed across the country from the CCP headquarters in a remote plateau of north-west China, public opinion swung decisively in favour of the CCP.

War-time Reuters correspondent Doon Campbell then asked Mao to elaborate on what he meant by democracy and freedom. On democracy, Mao cited the principle set out by US president Abraham Lincoln in his famous Gettysburg address, that it is “of the people, by the people and for the people”. On freedom, he cited US president Franklin Roosevelt’s freedom of thought and religion, and freedom from want and fear.

These sincere and straightforward replies easily won people’s hearts and propelled the CCP to power.

Once in power, however, the party ceased to advocate democracy. Instead it enshrined dictatorship in the state Constitution. The 1954 Constitution called it the “people’s democratic dictatorship” and its latest amendment in 1983 called it the “proletariat dictatorship”.

This change of mind resulted in great tragedy. Between 1949 and 1976, the number of unnatural deaths in China was between 30 million and 50 million, according to estimates by Chinese and Western scholars. At least another 100 million suffered from human rights abuses during the incessant political purges.

Yet the Chinese have not given up their dream. In April 1976, they staged a pro-democracy movement, which was promptly suppressed. But it re-surfaced in 1979 as the Xidan Democracy Wall movement. Its most prominent figure was Mr Wei Jingsheng with his call for “The Fifth Modernisation”.

He argued that the four modernizations as propsed by the CCP – modernization in agriculture, industry, defence and technology – would not bring about a truly modern China without the fifth modernization. And that was political democracy. Mr Wei ended up in jail for 15 years.

The demand for democracy was the silenced for about a decade. It then re-emerged on an even greater scale, culminating in the June Fourth Tiananmen movement.

The excessive use of force in the Tiananmen crackdown of 1989 quietened the population for another 20 years. But last year, the cry for democracy surfaced again in the form of a mass signature campaign for Charter 2008, a document calling for democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law.

To be sure, from May Fourth to June Fourth, the country has made striking progress. The last 90 years could be divided exactly into three equal thirds.

The first 30 years (1919-1949) saw China groping for a way ahead. The CCP successfully identified the people’s common ideal – a strong and independent country freed from foreign domination – and delivered it. The feat gave the CCP an indisputable mandate from the people.

The next 30 years (1949-1979) saw China undergoing an extremely tough time, and by the end it was “on the blink of bankruptcy”, according to official reckoning. The CCP risked losing its mandate and was forced to reconsider its policies.

The last 30 years (1979-2009) saw China transforming itself beyond recognition, thanks to reforms and opening up.

During the last 30 years, the country has undergone a complete facelift. Its people now enjoy unprecedented affluence and personal freedom and China has reclaimed its position as one of the richest countries in the world – a position it held in the past until the mid-1800s.

These successes show that the May Fourth ideals – of science and democracy – are partially fulfilled. If the successful space walk last year is a symbol of Mr Science arriving in China, the Charter 2008 shows that Mr Democracy is not in sight yet. It will be a key test for the CCP and the people in the years ahead.