Chapter 337: The Common Program—The Elders

Next was the deliberation on Wen Desi’s “Work Report of the First Transmigrator General Assembly Executive Committee, 1628-1629” and Ma Qianzhu’s “Work Report of the Planning People’s Committee, 1628-1629.” Because the two reports were very long, totaling nearly 150,000 words, and had been published in full on the BBS for many days, they were not read again at the general assembly. The meeting went directly into the discussion and deliberation stage. Not many people spoke, probably because the reports were too long and covered a wide range of topics, and ordinary people were rarely willing to read them carefully. The criticisms raised were mainly focused on the Executive Committee’s lack of concern for the lives of ordinary transmigrators, the long-term neglect of the masses’ sexual needs, and the lack of transparency in the cadre appointment system.

Ma Jia noted that Shan Liang did not jump out to speak. And the few who had been most active during the demonstration—Cheng Mo, Sun Li, and others—did not stand up to speak either.

Strange. Were they saving their strength for a critical moment, preparing for a decisive blow? Ma Jia, while presiding over the meeting, became vigilant.

However, judging from the content of the speeches, it was clear that the vast majority of transmigrators had not read these two crucial “Work Reports”—at least not carefully. The questions raised by the speakers were still the product of their own subjective thinking. Ma Jia shook his head. This group was really too naive to engage in parliamentary struggle.

The speakers did not even have a grasp of the basic information of the subject they were questioning. They spoke based on what they had seen, or even on hearsay, completely “imagining” things based on their own feelings. It would be a wonder if such questioning could be effective. Everyone knew how to say the word “democracy,” but it seemed no one had a concept of how to practice it.

After entering the public voting stage, these two reports were passed with an absolute majority. Ma Jia thought this was also expected: there was no need to list many numbers. The rapid development of Lingao’s industry, agriculture, and various construction projects was something everyone could see. No one questioned the work ability of the old Executive Committee, and no one could deny their achievements. In fact, what everyone was most afraid of was that this prosperity would have nothing to do with them. After the change of leadership, how the new Executive Committee could make everyone feel the “common interest” was the most important thing.

The topics on the first day of the meeting were mostly administrative matters, with not much room for debate, and rarely touched upon the hot-button issues that everyone was concerned about. They were basically “procedural” motions. Ma Jia intended to first let everyone get familiar with the way of discussion, and also to make it easier to correct things at any time. The rules of procedure that Ma Jia and the Law Club had come up with also began to be implemented, albeit with some bumps along the way.

On the second day, the meeting moved on to issues of greater concern to the attendees. The first was the deliberation of the “Common Program,” which had the status of a constitution for the Transmigration Group at this stage.

To revise this common program, the Law Club, while also handling the work of the preparatory committee, had set up a special group to be responsible for this matter. The group was further divided into subgroups for politics and law, finance and economics, military and foreign affairs, and culture and education for special argumentation. In addition to the members of the Law Club, professionals from various fields were also invited to express their opinions at the argumentation meetings. In addition to professional considerations, the common program drafting group also paid attention to the division of social components and ethnic groups, dividing people with common life experiences, backgrounds, occupations, and political inclinations into small groups, and then finding representative figures from these groups for consultation and drafting relevant articles.

On this basis, the drafting group produced the first draft of what was to be called the “Common Program of the Transmigration Group at the Present Stage.” The full text was published on the internal BBS for public consultation and discussion to widely absorb suggestions from all sides.

Most of the articles of the common program were the basic consensus within the Transmigration Group, such as the equality of all transmigrators, and the fact that transmigrators were more equal than natives. But there were still many differences, which not only involved the interests of many parties but also the values of many people. Among these five hundred or so people, there were all kinds of values: firm universalists, totalitarians, Han chauvinists, leftists, and rightists. Therefore, during the consultation stage, various suggestions and opinions were constantly raised on the internal BBS. The focus of the opinions was mainly on the power structure, the inheritance of transmigrators, the status of natives, and the attitude towards other ethnic groups. The opinions collected from the BBS showed that the attitudes of all parties were quite opposed. Ma Jia did not think this was a bad thing—for a semi-motley crew like the Transmigration Group, acknowledging the differences of opinion and deciding the future direction of the group through public discussion was more realistic than forcibly “unifying thoughts.”

“As long as it is fully discussed and passed by the general assembly, any attempt to overthrow it in the future can be suppressed with the hat of public opinion,” he said.

It was precisely because of the sensitivity of these issues, and the fact that they also involved personal values, that it would be difficult to force everyone to accept the regulations without the big hat of public opinion.

To overthrow a resolution, one had to take the path of parliamentary struggle. But this required high levels of organizational ability, eloquence, and political judgment, which could not be achieved by complaining and making strange remarks in a tavern or on a BBS. In the future, being an opposition would be a high-tech job. Ma Jia hoped that the internal struggles of the future Transmigration Group would be confined to the parliament, rather than street politics like the Maid Revolution, where people used demonstrations to express their wishes—the latter could easily lead to riots and be exploited by ambitious people.

After more than half a month of public notice and consultation, the initial draft was revised several times. From the first draft to the eve of the second general assembly, it went through three revisions in more than half a month. The drafting group itself discussed it three times, the Law Club discussed it twice, and the preparatory committee discussed it twice. It was only after a secret ballot on the draft was basically passed on the internal BBS that the text to be submitted to the second general assembly for discussion was officially formed.

The final text submitted was a very brief text, which could only be considered a “Provisional Charter.” In addition to the preamble, it was divided into 7 chapters and 60 articles, including a general program, political power organs, military system, economic policy, cultural and educational policy, ethnic policy, and foreign policy, which determined the nature, tasks, and general principles, policies, and principles of the Transmigration Group in all aspects.

Politically, the “Common Program” stipulated that the state system of the Transmigration Group was an aristocratic republic. The elder class, composed of all transmigrators, was the ruling class and enjoyed all the supreme political, economic, and legal powers. The Senate, composed of the elders, was the supreme power organ of the transmigrator state.

The program reaffirmed the resolution made at the first general assembly: the seats of the elders would be inherited by their children, and the seats could not be cancelled unless the elder died without issue or the Senate passed a “deprivation order.”

Elders enjoyed the right to personal protection. The personal freedom, personal safety, and property of the elders were sacred and inviolable. Without the authorization of the Senate, no person or organization had the right to arrest, try, or confiscate the property of an elder. Criminal suspicions against an elder and criminal and civil lawsuits with natives would be handled by the Court of Honor authorized by the Senate.

All elders were equal and enjoyed the right to vote, elect, and be elected in the Senate, as well as all the rights enjoyed by elders as stipulated by law.

Legally, there was a personal inequality between elders and natives. Specifically in criminal cases: if an elder killed a native, they would only be punished for a property crime; if a native killed an elder, they would be convicted according to the future criminal law of the transmigrator state. Once a judgment was made in a criminal or civil lawsuit between an elder and a native, it was a final judgment for the native and could not be appealed, but the elder could appeal once.

Criminal and civil lawsuits between elders would be handled by the Court of Honor, but the Court of Honor had no power to sentence an elder to death or to issue a “deprivation order” to strip them of their elder seat—this had to be decided by the Senate.

Only when an elder was proven guilty of the following crimes—killing another elder; actively defecting to another power to serve them; deliberately destroying the production capacity and technological data of the Transmigration Group, causing irreparable losses; declaring independence and setting up their own shop—could they be stripped of their elder seat and sentenced to death.

For any other crime or charge, whether it could be proven or not, the death penalty could not be imposed. The most severe punishment was the lifelong deprivation of the elder’s seat in the Senate, which could be restored by their children after the elder’s death.

Under normal circumstances, after an elder was convicted by the Court of Honor, they could only be punished with a property penalty and house arrest. During the house arrest, they would enjoy a living standard no lower than the average level of the elders, and their legal property would not be violated.

The power of the elders was a topic of much discussion among the transmigrators. The unanimous opinion of everyone was that to protect their own personal safety and not to be “purged” or “cleansed” by some ambitious person one day, and to be framed with trumped-up charges, the personal safety of every elder—regardless of their political views and code of conduct—must be guaranteed. Some even suggested during the discussion that an elder should not be sentenced to death for any crime except killing another elder. But there were also a considerable number of people who believed that if it was too broad, it would lack a little legal deterrence and could easily lead to the elders doing as they pleased.

After entering the general assembly discussion stage, Sun Li stood up and asked to speak on this matter. He raised objections to the last three of the four capital crimes, believing that the last three crimes were relatively arbitrary and could be easily exploited by others.

“Actively defecting to another power and deliberately destroying productivity can both be achieved by forging evidence,” Sun Li questioned. “Back in the Soviet Union’s purges, weren’t the charges, evidence, and witnesses for the so-called treason of many marshals and generals, including Tukhachevsky, all complete? Who can guarantee that no one will pull the same trick?”