Reflections on Poverty Alleviation and Village-based Assistance
The rural revitalization strategy is a major strategy put forward by the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, an overall and historic task related to the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country, and the general starting point of the "three rural" work in the new era. To promote rural revitalization, we must effectively solve the "five problems".
1. Solve the problem of endogenous power
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with the continuous increase in investment in poverty alleviation in various regions and departments, hundreds of thousands of first secretaries and millions of cadres have been dispatched across the country to carry out assistance work, the production and living standards of the people have been significantly improved, the appearance of the countryside has undergone significant changes, and great achievements have been made in poverty alleviation. At the same time, poverty alleviation has also led to a very small number of people breeding the idea of "waiting, relying on, demanding, and fighting", not doing what they should do, not solving what they can solve, and "waiting" cadres to deliver rice, oil, materials, and environmental sanitation, relying on village cadres to clean, and actively reaching out to "ask" when encountering door-to-door visits from leaders, and "being above board" than "fighting" to be a subsistence household. They seem to have given their big and small things to the government and the cadres stationed in the village, but they have been replaced with "hypochondriasis" to varying degrees. What is more, some grassroots cadres have also "abandoned their positions" to varying degrees, "giving up" their own work, and when all work is supervised by higher-level departments and leaders, and units in other regions are providing assistance to their counterparts, they themselves have put on a posture of "taking a back seat" and "watching the fire from across the strait." They wait for others to arrange everything, do not actively perform their duties, and take the initiative to charge into battle.
We have always advocated that everyone should help everyone and do their own things. The government should devote its limited resources and energy to the small number of people in difficulty who really need help, and use its limited resources and energy in the key areas of promoting regional economic development and improving people's livelihood. Whether it is poverty alleviation or rural revitalization, only by fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of the grassroots cadres and masses, fully stimulating their endogenous motivation to pursue development and progress, replenishing the spiritual calcium, taking the initiative and working with one heart and one mind, can "everyone gather firewood and the flame is high", gather a strong joint force to achieve things, and promote the realization of the great goal of rural revitalization.
Second, solve the problem of "moral hazard".
Rural civilization is one of the general requirements for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, and it is a higher pursuit of the "spiritual level" of rural revitalization. Respecting and loving the elderly, living in harmony with neighbors, being honest and trustworthy, and being enthusiastic about public welfare are the fine traditions of the Chinese nation that have been passed down for thousands of years, and are the basic requirements for ensuring the peace and order of the society in which we live. However, in real life, from the perspective of the problems reflected in poverty alleviation, due to various reasons, the phenomenon of moral decline is more common. For example, the hardening of the road to the house caused a dispute over the right of neighbors, the brothers did not get along and "sent" the old man to the village committee, sneered at the village-based work team for a bag of relief food without first giving it to him, took the opportunity of the village committee to build an industrial road for its own sake and blackmailed to solve historical disputes with other villagers and put forward unreasonable demands, "cried poor" to help cadres go into the house to verify their income, concealed the true situation, and built a two-story small building afterwards, spent a lot of money to build a "living tomb" for frugality, and distrusted the township government and village cadres. Threatening and insulting cadres stationed in villages, etc. Although some of these phenomena have been involved in the law, the root cause lies in the abandonment of excellent traditional culture and morality, forming a "moral hazard", which has become an unfavorable factor restricting rural revitalization, and if it is allowed to continue to spread, it will inevitably produce a series of problems in rural social governance, which will have a negative impact on the cause of the party and the state and the production and life of the people.
It is necessary to vigorously carry forward the core socialist values, carry out activities to create civilized villages and towns, civilized families, and other rural civilizations, and advocate filial piety and love for relatives, diligence and thrift, honesty and trustworthiness, and equality between men and women. Carry out gratitude education and traditional culture education in various forms, starting from cultivating dolls, grasping the small as early as possible, and leading the big with the small, so as to promote the cultivation of good family customs, civilized rural customs, and simple folk customs, and build civilized villages. Deeply promote the cultivation of rural "people who understand the law" and the creation of demonstration villages for democracy and rule of law, strengthen the popularization of the "Civil Code", guide the masses to participate in and implement village rules and agreements, establish a sense of "ownership", and work together to promote the improvement of the level of village governance.
3. Solve the problem of ability and quality
Village-level party organizations are the outposts and fortresses of the party at the grassroots level, which play an important role in implementing the policies of the higher levels and leading the masses to develop and become rich. For a long time, constrained by the level of local economic development, the financial investment of village-level organizations is insufficient, and the remuneration of the village "two committees" is low, and after deducting the pension insurance, the monthly remuneration is less than 2,000 yuan, which is not suitable for the large number of daily tasks it undertakes. Especially in the later stage of poverty alleviation, village cadres and team members stationed in villages at all levels do not leave the village 24 hours a day, and all personnel eat and live in the village, and "semi-military management" is implemented. In the face of increasingly arduous and arduous tasks, some village cadres began to feel war-weary, and even took the initiative to apply for resignation. It is obvious that because the remuneration of village cadres is too low, the salary alone is not even enough to feed a family, and it is not attractive, and the mobilization work is often wishful thinking, and in the end "the bamboo basket is empty." The party committee and the government obviously also paid attention to this "serious" problem and began to make up their minds to change the situation, and in 2021, the province completed the election of the village "two committees". The biggest feature of this election is that the general implementation of the branch secretary director "one shoulder", and at the same time greatly increase the level of salary and treatment as a policy support support. This is a good effort and attempt, which will help attract outstanding talents to devote themselves to the management of village-level affairs and play the role of "leading geese". At the same time, however, we should also note that whether or not the original intention and good intentions of the design of this system can be achieved is largely determined by the personal accomplishment and ability of the personnel who are "shoulder-to-shoulder." Since the "power" in the hands of the "shoulder-to-shoulder" personnel is more concentrated, if it is used well, it will greatly promote the development of the village and benefit the people, and if it is not used well, it will even use it as capital to engage in activities for personal gain, which will have a destructive impact on the locality. How to truly select outstanding talents to serve in the important post of "shoulder-to-shoulder" tests the ability level and accuracy of grassroots party committees and governments to select and employ people.
It is necessary to establish a correct outlook on selecting and employing people, select suitable candidates according to the criteria of "morality, ability, diligence, achievements, and honesty," and the selected people must also have the excellent character of maintaining close ties with the masses of the people at all times and being willing to perceive the warmth and well-being of the masses at any time. It is necessary to put an end to the influence of the "small circle" culture and "family forces" and, from the political plane of the healthy development of the cause of the party and the state, select people who are able to do things, who want to do things, and who can be trusted by the masses. It is necessary to improve the annual assessment and daily assessment system, explore the method of directly inspecting village cadres by secret ballot evaluation by the masses, establish a cross-level supervision mechanism, implement the system of using cadres who can be promoted and demoted, and ensure that people are appointed on the basis of merit and avoid cronyism.
Fourth, solve the problem of sustainable development
Industrial revitalization is the premise and foundation of rural revitalization, and it can also be said to be an important material guarantee for rural revitalization. During the period of poverty alleviation, according to the assessment standards, each village must have industrial projects and collective economic income. To this end, all localities are trying to vigorously develop rural industries, including planting vegetables, sweet potatoes, peppers, and processing and other "short, flat and fast" industries, as well as breeding projects with large investment funds and adopting the model of "company + cooperative + farmer", and "villages have characteristic industries and households have income-increasing projects", which is a thriving scene. It can be said that in a short period of time, a large number of resources can be gathered and mobilized to invest in poverty alleviation, which itself demonstrates the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the people have indeed obtained tangible benefits from the implementation of these industrial projects, such as land transfer income, labor income, shareholding dividends, etc., and the village collective economy has been strengthened and developed to varying degrees, laying a certain material foundation for rural revitalization. However, this kind of national efforts to promote rural poverty alleviation and prosperity is an unconventional means taken in a specific historical period, and the realization of rural revitalization must eventually return to the framework of the market economy. For example, a large number of high-quality cultivated land is transferred to build greenhouses to plant fungus, vegetables, etc., and some need to unify the land, such projects due to unsalable products, coupled with the introduction of companies blindly expand the scale of the capital can not keep up, there are huge losses and can not continue to maintain the operation, and finally the project is suspended, the land is barren, and the farmers can not recover the land and can not revitalize the use. Some pigs, ecological chicken breeding projects, the introduction of the company commitment to the lowest purchase price, slaughter 2 batches per year, after investing a lot of money to build enclosures and equipment, because seedlings, feed supply can not keep up with the final slaughter of only a batch of slaughter each year, and even some projects in the first batch of slaughter on the obvious unsalable, but also rely on non-market methods to be "digested". After the suspension of these projects, a large number of enclosures and equipment were idle, and the land occupied could not be restored to its original appearance. Even if a small number of projects continue to run in the future, the cooperatives and the company have fallen into an increasingly fierce game situation, and the agreed payment of funds has become a "big problem", and the cooperative and the project are in an embarrassing situation of being "tied" to the company but unable to get rid of.
Poverty alleviation has been successfully completed, and the curtain of rural revitalization has been opened. On the new journey, the development of rural industries should be combined with local conditions, conscientiously in accordance with the requirements of the "eight elements", in the selection of industrial projects, capital investment, technical support, production and marketing docking, talent security, etc., do a solid job in risk assessment and sustainability research and judgment, select industrial projects that are in line with local conditions and have development potential for implementation, select and cultivate industrial leaders, and cultivate a group of professional farmers in the new era who will never leave. It is necessary to respect the objective law of industrial development, not blindly seek scale expansion, not rush to pursue short-term interests, and do a good job in long-term development planning on the basis of maintaining the initial stage of the project to ensure the sustainability of capital investment and technical support. It is necessary to solve the remaining problems of poverty alleviation in a market-oriented and law-based manner, effectively revitalize resources and resolve stock problems. We should not be afraid to take responsibility and be afraid of difficulties because the problem is complex and wide-ranging, and "turn a blind eye" to the problem and "let it go", but should take the initiative to deal with the problem in a timely manner and seek truth from facts, so as to clear the development obstacles for rural revitalization.
Fifth, solve the problem of business environment
Poverty alleviation has greatly improved the appearance of rural infrastructure, highways connect counties, rural roads have been upgraded and renovated, logistics and transportation have reached towns and villages, the Internet has been deeply embedded, roads, electricity and water have all been extended to thousands of households, and the once closed transportation and information communication have been completely changed. It can be said that poverty alleviation has made useful explorations for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, summarized the effectiveness and experience on this basis, established and improved relevant systems, and laid a solid foundation for high-quality development in the future.
The hardware conditions have improved, and the "software" must also keep up with the times. In the process of promoting rural revitalization, more attention should be paid to using rule of law thinking and rule of law methods to deepen reform, promote development, resolve contradictions, maintain stability, and respond to risks, so as to form a rule of law atmosphere in which things are handled in accordance with the law, the law is found when encountering problems, the law is used to solve problems, and the law is used to resolve contradictions. It is necessary to take the demonstration and creation of the construction of a rule of law government as the starting point, deepen the reform of "delegating power, delegating power, and improving services", strive to improve the level of government services, strictly regulate fair and civilized law enforcement, implement a list of minor violations of the law without punishment, create a market-oriented, legalized, and international business environment, and create a rule of law government that satisfies the people and market entities. Carry out in-depth efforts to create democratic rule of law demonstration villages and cultivate rural "people who understand the law", improve the legal literacy and cultural level of rural grassroots organizations and the general public, guide the masses to establish a correct view of the individual, the overall situation, and development, enhance the spiritual realm of the masses, promote the formation of a law-based and modern grassroots social governance pattern, and cultivate the "fertile soil" for rural revitalization, so that entrepreneurs want to come, dare to come, and "don't want to leave when they come".
(Author's Affiliation: Guizhou Provincial Government Legal Research Center, successively served as the first secretary of the village in Wanping Village, Baishiyan Township, Ziyun County, Anshun City, Guizhou Province, and Houcun Community, Jiashi Town, Yanhe Tujia Autonomous County, Tongren City; Source: "China Rural Discovery" Issue 1, 2023)
