Chapter 434: The Institutional Reform Leading Group
The spring breeze of institutional reform blew through Lingao overnight. With the establishment of the Institutional Reform Leading Group Officeâalthough this group was just a nameplate, and its leader, Wen Desi, was clearly a figureheadâthe discussions on the BBS heated up again. The powerful departments all remained silent this time. Their status, power, and affiliation were too sensitive, so any move would be questioned by countless people. It was more appropriate to say nothing at all.
However, other departments did not have so many scruples. In their view, this was a great opportunity to expand the power of their own departments. Who doesnât like to have many subordinate departments? Take Director Cheng of the financial circle, for example. He had more than a dozen Elder department heads and directors under him. Every time a meeting was held, there were twenty or thirty naturalized executive secretaries attending from outside.
On summer nights, the heads of various departments stayed up all night working behind closed doors. Even low-key departments like the Agricultural Committee and the Forestry Department threw out proposals such as agricultural law enforcement regulations and forest police organization laws. Even the food factory considered itself the main responsible unit for food safety and wanted to formulate a food and drug safety law, as if it wanted to upgrade the food factory to a food and drug safety administration and manage everything that went into peopleâs mouths. This made Shi Xiaoren so angry that he gritted his teeth and declared that he would properly educate Factory Director Xun on what an enterprise is and what an administrative agency is.
âThis isnât building a legal system, this is a blatant attempt to be a mountain king,â Ma Qianzhu said, looking at the latest issue of the Public Opinion Summary. It compiled the various military and political proposals submitted by the Elders in recent weeks, of which more than 80% were about administrative institutional reform. Such as: âOn the Importance of a Certain System,â âThe Urgent Need to Strengthen a Certain Department is the Trend of the Times.â
If the Executive Committee members had time to go to the BBS, they would see that behind each such post was a more spectacular thousand-story building. There were those who went to battle shirtless for the interests of their own departments, those who proposed to create new departments and be the boss themselves, and those who fiercely attacked other departments or leaders, demanding that they âabdicate and make way for the worthy.â Faced with this chaos, Ma Qianzhu felt as if time had turned back, and he was back in the pre-transmigration departmental institution establishment discussion meeting.
Wen Desi, however, was not concerned. âA little chaos is good. After great chaos comes great order. If this proposal hadnât come out, would it have drawn out so many monsters and demons? We say itâs systemic reform, institutional reform, but who doesnât know itâs all for the word âpowerâ? Now that everyone has an opinion, letâs put it on the table. Itâs better to say it out loud than to hide it and conspire behind closed doors.â
Qian Shuiting coughed. âWen Zong, isnât it a bit much to call the Elders with normal political participation demands monsters and demons?â
Wen Desi laughed. âThen Iâll amend it. Some of these Elders are not monsters and demons.â
Wu De came out to smooth things over. âWe have to do institutional reform sooner or later. Now that the scale is small and the departments are few, itâs relatively easy to standardize. Itâs easier to turn a small boat. Itâs better to do it now than later. Since we have a leading group office, the specific affairs can be handled by them. They can conduct a preliminary review first, and then we can discuss it at the plenary session.â
Qian Shuiting said, âShouldnât this matter be handled by a special committee nominated by the Senate and directly responsible to the Senate?â
âI say, Old Qian, who do you think our Executive Committee is responsible to?â Wen Desi asked.
Qian Shuiting was caught off guard. âOf course, to the Senate.â
âThat settles it,â Wen Desi said. âEvery one of us here was nominated by the Senate and elected by the Senate. We are all responsible to the Senate and serve the Senate and the people. We are not kings, and the Senate is not the Estates-General. We must pay attention to unity, Comrade Qian Shuiting.â
Qian Shuiting said nothing.
âItâs normal to want to be a director after being a factory manager for a long time. Iâm worried that if we keep arguing like this, when will it end? It will affect our work,â Ma Qianzhu said. As the Secretary of State in charge of daily work, he was more concerned with the implementation of work.
âThe institutional adjustment should first adapt to the needs of the mainland campaign. Secondly, it also provides a new challenge for some Elders who have not had the opportunity to take charge of a front. It can be seen as a kind of encouragement, which is conducive to boosting morale. Unity is the most important overall situation,â Cheng Dong said. âI am very much in favor of it. As for the specific work, I think it can be handed over to the Law Society and the Great Library. One is a professional counterpart, and the other can play a full role in data retrieval and information consultation.â
âSo I suggest that the deputy group leaders be Comrades Ma Jia, Yu Eâshui, and Qian Shuiting,â Wen Desi said.
Lu Xuan didnât know what was happening in the Executive Committee meeting room. He was smoking one cigarette after another in frustration.
Things were not going as he had imagined at all. He had originally thought that the bigwigs on the Executive Committee would not be interested in doing the specific practical work and would definitely set up a special agency to carry out the cleanup and reorganization of the administrative agenciesâ functions. As the initiator of the proposal, he could completely seek a position as a deputy director in this new agency as a stepping stone for his next move.
However, the new agency that was announced was of an exceptionally high standard. Lu Xuan knew that according to the custom of the old time, the smaller the name, the higher the level. Any agency called âxx officeâ or âxx leading groupâ was not of a low level. And the leader and deputy leaders of this group, except for one Yu Eâshui, were all members of the Executive Committee!
Looking at the organizational details, this was an institution where the Law Society led the direction, and the Great Library served as a data collection agency. Qian Shuiting was probably included for some kind of supervision.
Although the Great Library was also participating, its positioning was just as a support unit for data collection and organization. Yu Eâshui was not interested in this at all. As usual, he let Lu Xuan handle the specific business, which made him a de facto deputy group leader. But the Law Society had no friendship with him and only symbolically invited him to one meeting. Because he had no profession to speak ofâthe little legal knowledge he had learned at the party school back then had long been returned to the teacher. When writing materials, he could temporarily read books and check materials to cram. But participating in discussions required flexible application, which was difficultâhis opinions were rarely sought on issues involving professional fields. Instead, legwork like checking materials was all assigned to him under the pretext of âthe convenience of his position.â
If he were to summarize what had happened in the past few days, he would find that after all his planning, besides a few more people being able to call out his name when he walked in Bairen City, he had not gained any real benefits.
As a result, the first step of his originally planned three-step plan was not completed. He was not a member of this group and had no influence on the overall work of the group. Naturally, he could not use this opportunity to clarify the powers of management, use, assessment, appointment and removal of naturalized cadres to the Civil Affairs Peopleâs Committee. And he could not use his position as the deputy director of the training department of the Civil Affairs Peopleâs Committee to actually grasp the organizational work of the naturalized cadres.
Although Lu Xuan was mentally prepared that his plan would not go smoothly, he had not expected at all that things would not go according to his script.
âHow could this be! Things shouldnât be like this!â he roared silently. For several days in a row, the sound of caning echoed in the Zhang Family Manor. Seven or eight bamboo boards were broken. Although the family law was used in the Zhang Family Manor every three or five days, there had never been a time like these past few days when you would be beaten for saying the wrong thing, and beaten even if you said nothing. From his wife to the lowest-ranking kitchen maid, everyone avoided him like the plague.
But this was not what frustrated Lu Xuan the most. This morning, Lu Xuan saw a proposal from the Cheka on the BBS. The purpose of the proposal was nothing more than to fight for power for his own department. The proposal criticized, without naming names, individual Elders for using their power to seek benefits for the naturalized citizens who were attached to them, thereby proving that the disciplinary violations of the Eldersâ duties were on the rise. If the functions of the Cheka were not strengthened, it would be impossible to curb them in time, which would cause huge damage to the cause of the Senate. Although no names were mentioned, Lu Xuan felt that it was alluding to him. When he thought of the restless Zhang Family Manor behind him, he felt a wave of dizziness. Although there were few replies to this proposal, those few words lingered in Lu Xuanâs mind like a nightmare.
âDamn it, Iâm being targeted before I even get into power?â Lu Xuan stubbed out a cigarette and cursed bitterly. He suspected that there was a traitor in his manor, and someone was talking nonsense outside and an Elder had heard it.
It must be Liu Hui! he thought fiercely. He must go back tonight and thoroughly purge the servants. He wouldnât stop until the traitor was dug out. At this critical moment, his own backyard couldnât catch fire first.
He thought and thought, and decided that he could only start from his other part-time job: deputy director of the training department of the Civil Affairs Peopleâs Committee.
When Lu Xuan walked into Liu Muzhouâs office, this big boss of the civil affairs of the Senate government was drinking tea from a small Zisha teapot.
In the Senateâs system, any department named Peopleâs Committee was of a higher level than an ordinary department. For example, the Civil Affairs Peopleâs Committee, its scope of business was equivalent to the âMinistry of Health, Labour and Welfareâ under the large-department system of Japan. Almost everything related to the peopleâs livelihood was under its jurisdiction.
Liu Muzhou was a Jiangnan fatty who liked a refined life and was full of petty bourgeois sentimentality. His office was decorated elegantly and neatly. The windows had Xiangfei bamboo blinds, the walls were hung with famous calligraphy and paintings, the tables and chairs were all made of rosewood, incense was burning in the censer, and there was a Zisha teapot on the table.
Lu Xuan quite liked his elegant style, so although their cooperation over the past few years had been intermittent and part-time, it had been mutually beneficial. Lu Xuan had created a complete set of training files and issued training evaluations for the naturalized citizens who participated in the training. This evaluation later became an important reference for various units to use naturalized citizens. In addition, Lu Xuan also organized several administrative training classes for naturalized citizens with the outstanding students from the training as reserve cadres for the administrative departments. The feedback from various departments on the students who graduated from the training classes was very good.