Chapter 322: Ma Jia's Debut

Ma Jia produced a thick dossier. This was the firsthand material that the members of his Law Club had painstakingly gathered through visits, research, and compilation.

When An Xi handed him the compiled information, he had said, “This isn’t just material, it’s our future.”

Ma Jia couldn’t agree more. This material was the stepping stone for their Law Club to enter the ruling circle.

Ma Jia knew that after last night’s events, his future was in a state where it could either skyrocket or plummet. His future depended heavily on the Executive Committee’s opinion of him.

Although the Executive Committee had been dissolved and faced re-election, which was of course an opportunity for a reshuffle, unless something unexpected happened, this group of people would not be easily shuffled out. Ma Jia did not believe that the upcoming second general assembly would drastically change the current power structure. It would merely be a further expansion of the ruling base, and this expansion was a great opportunity for his own faction to rise.

Establishing a legalized and institutionalized management model at this juncture would be beneficial to Ma Jia personally, to the entire Law Club, and to the great cause of transmigration itself. Ma Jia was firmly convinced of this.

Without a sound and reasonable system, there would be no stable social order. Unrest due to dissatisfaction with the distribution of rights, like the “Maid Revolution,” would happen again and again, eventually leading to demoralization, and even division and rebellion.

Ma Jia believed that the current members of the Executive Committee were passable in terms of practical ruling experience, but they had, after all, grown up in another time and space. They underestimated the problems they would face in this new situation and unconsciously still used old ways of thinking and doing things. This would not be a problem in a stable social environment, but the Transmigration Group was at a brand new beginning. Nothing was set in stone, and the consequences of policy mistakes within the group were far from being describable as simple “disharmony.”

He cleared his throat and said, “Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak—”

He then began to elaborate on his report.

The Executive Committee members knew a little about what the ordinary masses of the Transmigration Group were thinking and what they were most dissatisfied with, but their understanding was not comprehensive. In fact, most of the committee members and cadres were very surprised that the issue of women had led to a demonstration. Life secretaries had always been a topic of casual complaint, but no one thought people would actually demonstrate at the Executive Committee over it.

This material categorized the masses’ dissatisfaction into six main parts: women, electricity, entertainment, household chores, personal restrictions, and cadre appointments.

The issue of women was, of course, the part people had the most opinions about. But Ma Jia’s survey data showed that not everyone’s desire for a life secretary had reached a point of desperation. Although as high as 81% of the people expressed their hope that the Executive Committee would solve the “life secretary” problem, only 23.54% of the total population expressed “serious dissatisfaction,” “unbearable,” “affecting their mood,” or “extremely disappointed.”

“Obviously, among the crowd that participated in the demonstration yesterday, many were not necessarily ‘driven by their hormones,’ but were using this opportunity to express their own interests,” Ma Jia said. “We will discuss this later.”

“Secondly, restrictions on electricity supply, as high as 72%,” Ma Jia said. “Actually, this problem can be looked at together with entertainment. The main purpose of needing electricity is for entertainment, and there are too few public entertainment facilities in Bairen City.”

“We’ve built a movie theater, a library, a football field, a basketball court, and even a badminton court, but the usage rate of these venues is not high, and the attendance at the movie theater is also low…” Xiao Zishan seemed to want to defend himself.

“In terms of traditional cultural and recreational construction, this is not too bad, but it didn’t take into account the high proportion of nerds in the group,” Ma Jia said. “Computers and games are the entertainment items for nerds. Besides, the movies shown in that theater are all old-fashioned. I’m afraid no one is interested in them except the natives—and the natives can’t enter Bairen City…”

“We can show AVs in the movie theater!” Chief Wen spoke up again. “Give Xi Pangzi’s broken movie projector to the Propaganda Department. They can form a mobile projection team to show movies to the natives. We can just use a projector in the movie theater, the screen will just be a little smaller. Show two AVs every night! One Japanese and one Western! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday show normal stuff, Thursday show lesbian films, Friday show stocking films, Saturday show SM films, and Sunday show regular American blockbusters—after a week of jerking off, it’s a good time to rest. If any comrades have special preferences, we can also arrange a special screening. That way, everyone will be satisfied.” Wen Desi had been full of energy since last night. “I just find it strange that the universalists among us are so rampant. Even something as upright as showing AVs has to be done secretly by a few people in an office.”

“We can’t provide unlimited electricity for now. We should still focus on making the most of what we have—organize a football or badminton league to get the nerds to exercise,” Ma Qianzhu suggested. “We can offer some rewards as incentives.”

Ma Jia continued, “As for household chores, the General Office recently set up a laundry service group, which solved the biggest complaints about laundry and mending. But people still feel there are too many household chores. They feel like they’re back in a university dormitory. Not only do they feel a lack of freedom, but many people have to do cleaning after a whole day of work, which is really tiring.”

Many people also expressed dissatisfaction with the excessive restrictions on personal freedom, but they were relatively understanding. While they were dissatisfied, the call for immediate change was not strong.

“According to my survey report, the masses’ attention to the distribution of interests has not yet reached a deep level. Most people have been in a state of ‘just going with the flow.’ Dissatisfaction and complaints have mainly been focused on living standards. However, in recent months, there has been a new trend worth noting,” Ma Jia said, his tone becoming more serious. “Opinions on the cadre appointment mechanism—have shown a rapid upward trend. Especially after the Sanya development plan was announced, the dissatisfaction rate with cadre appointments rose to 57.91%. This is a very dangerous number.”

After Ma Jia finished his exposition on the public mood, he saw that everyone was listening with great interest. His confidence grew.

“I’m sure everyone is also very clear that this incident, on the surface, is a ‘female slave problem,’ but in essence, it’s an ‘interest distribution problem.’ And this interest distribution problem is not only reflected in maids, but also in electricity quotas, working environments, use of public funds, and many other aspects. These problems are all invariably linked to whether one is a ‘cadre,’ which in turn has triggered everyone’s questioning of the cadre appointment system.”

“This touches upon the issue of fairness. Commissar Ma also said just now that the masses are not concerned with scarcity but with inequality. The cadres get secretaries, have unlimited electricity, and privately buy female slaves—including the case of Chang Shide who was criticized today. These are all reactions to the public’s questioning of the fairness of the existing system.”

“The problem the Executive Committee is facing now is also this phenomenon: it cannot reflect the original promise of fairness of the Transmigration Group. In addition to the various differential treatments mentioned earlier, there is also the unfairness of the benefits that come with power itself. For example, if a native gives a maid to a certain member of the Executive Committee, who does this maid belong to? Without a corresponding system, ownership cannot be defined.”

“The masses will think: If I were a committee member, this woman would be mine.”

“The Executive Committee member thinks: He gave her to me because we have a good personal relationship; she is my personal property.”

“Of course, we don’t need to deduce whether it’s because of a good personal relationship or because the native has a favor to ask—it inevitably contains an element of interest exchange. Otherwise, why would a landlord give a woman to an agricultural technician instead of a chemical plant worker? Naturally, it’s because the agricultural technician brought ‘benefits,’ and the other party is repaying the favor for long-term gain.”

“From the landlords’ perspective, it is profitable to have a good relationship with the agricultural technicians. Although the agricultural technicians are actually supported by our entire industrial system to help the landlords gain benefits, the landlords don’t see this. They will only try to please the people they deal with directly. For everyone else who supports the work of the agricultural technicians, this is very unfair—everyone put in the effort, but only the agricultural technician got the benefit.”

“The female slave problem is actually about how to use public property fairly. For so long, the Executive Committee has not established rules for the use of public property. Using one’s position to enjoy the high-level treatment of a cadre is equivalent to consuming public property in a disguised form. Of course, the masses will be seriously dissatisfied. In the short term, they will slack off at work; in the long term, it may trigger new turmoil, or even division.”

“Today, everyone is racking their brains to solve the maid problem. Even if we can finally satisfy everyone completely, if the fundamental problem of interest distribution is not solved, other problems will arise tomorrow. Instead of treating the headache when it hurts and the foot when it hurts, it is better to formulate a complete interest distribution system once and for all to standardize the social behavior of our group.” Ma Jia felt he had said enough. “A complete system is better than all wisdom.”

Wu De led the applause, and then all the attendees began to applaud. The atmosphere was very enthusiastic. Ma Jia humbly expressed his thanks, repeatedly mentioning that this was a “collective achievement.”

“In addition,” Ma Jia said, “I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that the caretaker cabinet has clear limitations on its power. It is a transitional government, only maintaining the basic operation of the government and organizing and implementing elections, not creating any new policies—these should be left to the next government to handle. The caretaker government will be dissolved once a new government is formed, so we must clearly explain to the public the authority and duration of the caretaker cabinet, otherwise it will easily give people the impression that the caretaker cabinet is just the Executive Committee continuing in power under a different name.”

As for the duration of the caretaker cabinet, Ma Jia suggested it could last until around the tenth day of the Lunar New Year. The Transmigration Group would have a few days off during the Lunar New Year, making it easier to gather people. The dispatched personnel would also have basically finished their year-end work and could come back to attend the meeting.

“Proposals and discussions can begin now and end on Lunar New Year’s Eve, which gives us more than a month. The meetings, elections, and voting can start on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Ten days should be enough.”

“I agree with this,” Xiao Zishan said. “But the maid issue has already blown up, and we have clearly promised to come up with a solution before the Lunar New Year. If we now say that this has to wait until after the general assembly, I’m afraid it won’t pass.”

“This is a special case, we can only act according to the circumstances,” Ma Qianzhu said.

Everyone agreed.

“But we haven’t reached a consensus on which plan to adopt.”

“Also, what about the gay man, Cui Yunhong, and the single women? They don’t need maids,” Xiao Zishan suddenly remembered. “Wouldn’t they be at a disadvantage?”

“Of course, we should treat them equally and give them seven strong men or seven handsome young boys,” Wen Desi said.

“The problem is, the women may not necessarily want seven strong men,” Wu Nanhai said.

“How do you know?” Wen Desi retorted. “Nanhai, I hear you’re very good at women’s work. Could it be that you got this information by getting close to the female comrades?”

Wu Nanhai expressed his dissatisfaction: “When did I start doing women’s work?” he said excitedly. “This is a rumor! It’s slander!”

“And what about those with wives and girlfriends? I’m afraid they have the desire but not the courage when it comes to distributing maids…”

Ma Qianzhu said, “They can have the maids do the maids’ primary job, not the part-time job.” He shrugged. “Family problems are solved within the family.”

Wu De said, “Equal opportunity. If we give them the opportunity and they don’t take it, it’s no one’s fault. If they give up, it’s forfeited.”

“Let’s just have a grand democracy. This kind of thing requires full democracy,” Wen Desi said with a flourish of his hand. “Post all the proposed plans on the BBS. Not just these few plans, everyone can propose a plan. As long as it gets more than 5% co-sponsorship, it can be included in the ballot. Finally, we’ll have a referendum. Whichever one is approved is the one we’ll go with.”

“But there must be restrictions on the proposals,” Ma Qianzhu quickly added. “They cannot exceed the current national strength. Proposals such as kidnapping the Mughal princess to be a female slave will be automatically eliminated. Also, they cannot consume too much manpower and time.”

So, they sorted out the few plans proposed at the meeting, added some details, and prepared to post them on the BBS in the afternoon to solicit public opinion on the maid issue. The co-sponsorship for the proposals would begin the next day.

Xiao Zishan was greatly relieved to see that things were mostly settled. Seeing that no one had anything else to add, he announced the meeting adjourned, and all departments would continue to operate.

After the meeting, he had a private conversation with Ma Jia for a moment, highly praising his speech and expressing his strong agreement with the concepts of “ruling the country by law” and “social institutionalization.”