Chapter 3: Institutional Reform (Part 1)

A brief silence fell over the hall. Regardless of their political leanings, no one had expected Wen Desi to suddenly say such a thing at the general assembly. They were either savoring the meaning of his words or lost in surprise. The silence was broken by the “dependent” senators, the elderly women. Although they weren’t interested in what the leader was saying, they subconsciously began to applaud after the speech ended.

At first, the applause was sparse, then it was joined by Secretary of State Ma Qianzhu and the Director of the Sanya Special Administrative Region, Wang Luobin, followed by the other members of the Executive Committee. Then the military senators began to applaud, led by the People’s Commissars for the Army and Navy, the Inspector General of Training, and the senators from the General Staff. The members of the Navy and Army Young Officers’ Clubs stood up and applauded together, followed by all the army senators. Xiao Zishan noticed that Zhao Manxiong was also applauding, his fleshy palms clapping at a steady, measured pace, his face still wearing that gentle smile.

The applause grew louder and louder, from a few scattered claps to a unified roar, finally becoming “thunderous applause” that filled the entire hall. Even those senators who had initially decided not to applaud were forced to join in.

Wen Desi, smiling and waving frequently, walked down from the stage. Before he could return to his seat in the front row, Ma Qianzhu had already risen to greet him, grasping his hand firmly.

“Chairman Wen, you spoke wonderfully.”

“Not at all,” Wen Desi said. “I just had to get it off my chest.”

After this small interlude, the meeting moved on to the first formal item on the agenda: institutional reform.

The leader of the institutional reform leading group was Wen Desi, but everyone knew his role was “in name only.” The actual work was handled by the three deputy leaders.

First, Yu E’shui delivered the “Summary Report on the Research of the Senate System.” The research report itself was very thick, with a copy for each department. All together, it would be as tall as a person. So this time, only the relevant conclusions were read out.

The system established at the Second General Assembly had revealed many problems in its operation. The most fundamental issue, and the one senators were most concerned about, was the relationship between the Senate and the Executive Committee. Many of the problems that had arisen were related to the lack of clarity in this relationship.

From the perspective of the political system, the relationship between the Senate and the Executive Committee was that of a parliament and a government. However, the special nature of the transmigration group meant that the senators had a dual identity: they were both members of the parliament, the highest organ of power, and heads of administrative departments or state-owned enterprises. As a result, when performing their duties as members of parliament, they were often selective, looking at issues more from the perspective of their own department’s interests, and were greatly influenced by personal preferences and their environment. The excessive administrative and technical work of their primary jobs also left the senators with little energy for political participation and deliberation. Even after the standing committee system was adopted for representation, the standing committee members found it difficult to manage—their own workloads were not reduced much by becoming standing committee members. The senators’ work was like having one person for several positions; if they didn’t do the work, no one would. Therefore, the burden on the standing committee members was very heavy. As the saying goes, they worked during the day, had meetings at night, and still had to read documents when they got home. Ordinary people did not have such abundant energy. Once they became standing committee members, both the scope of their administrative duties and their own work performance were greatly affected. Before the first term of the standing committee was over, many had already applied to quit.

Although the Qian brothers and others had proposed that the standing committee should be composed of full-time senators, which would then lead to the establishment of a number of specialized committees, the Senate’s most vexing problem at present was the shortage of senators to fill positions, especially in technical roles. At least in the short term, they could not be replaced by naturalized citizens. And with the start of the mainland campaign, the demand for senators would only increase. It was clearly not feasible to have a group of senators dedicated to full-time representation.

As for the Executive Committee, the situation was not much better. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the Executive Committee system was actually a clone of the TG political system. But it soon proved to be ill-suited to the environment in Lin’gao. First, the Secretary of State, who should have been the head of the administration, had pitifully little power. Many important functional departments were under the “supervision” of other Executive Committee members, and many administrative matters had to be discussed with other committee members of equal rank before a decision could be reached. Due to their equal status, coordination between the departments under each committee member also became a problem. Inefficient government orders became the norm. And the specific business departments under each committee member thus became the member’s personal “fiefdom.” The power of the committee members was immense, often even surpassing that of the Secretary of State. Not only that, the expansion of the individual power of the committee members also led to the expansion of the power of their secretaries. Because the committee members had a lot of work, the handling of daily affairs was often delegated to their secretaries. In some departments, the actual power wielded by the committee members’ secretaries had surpassed that of ordinary senators. This was an extremely sensitive issue for the senators, who were always worried about “power falling into the hands of others.”

The third problem was the institutional setup. The administrative structure of the Executive Committee was roughly modeled on that of the old world, with clear divisions and comprehensive coverage, attempting to build a bureaucratic apparatus that would tightly control and manage society and the economy from top to bottom. However, the Senate was extremely lacking in well-trained middle and lower-level bureaucrats. Not only did the heads of departments have to be senators, but even most bureau-level cadres had to be held concurrently by senators. It was not uncommon for a senator to hold five or six deputy bureau chief positions and seven or eight deputy director positions. The senators’ energy was limited. With too many concurrent posts, work was done slowly and poorly. And the excessive number of departments created too many links, making the decline in efficiency inevitable.

Xiao Zishan listened distractedly to Yu E’shui’s rhythmic reading of the report. He had read the report a few days ago, and the tone had already been set: regardless of how the meeting went, institutional reform was inevitable. What would be his next step?

Of course, no matter how the institutions were reformed, the General Office would always be indispensable.

Continuing as the Director of the General Office was certainly a good option, but he was in charge of the senators’ daily lives, directly managing thousands of male and female naturalized citizens who provided various services to the senators. The senators’ personal lives were no secret to him—and that itself was a source of resentment. Some were already saying that he was the biggest black hand in the Senate—which was not a good thing.

What if he went out to take an administrative post? He felt he might not be capable enough, and frankly, he really didn’t want to leave the comfort of Lin’gao.

As he was lost in thought, he suddenly saw Ma Qianzhu hunched over his desk, revising something. A speech for the meeting, perhaps? The winds of “institutional reform” had been blowing within the Executive Committee for a long time. The “Dugong,” one of the main factions in the Senate, would surely make a move. He had heard faint rumors that Xi Yazhou would soon return from Sanya to take up the long-vacant position of Chief of the General Staff.

Xiao Zishan knew that Ma Qianzhu had been frequently interacting with Wen Desi, Wu De, and other members of the Executive Committee and major People’s Commissars recently. According to Wu Nanhai’s report, they often met at the coffee shop. Although no one knew what they discussed, Xiao Zishan guessed it was most likely about personnel arrangements.

In Xiao Zishan’s view, personnel arrangements were not that mysterious. The key was whether the various factions currently vying for power could come up with a plan that would reassure the senators. It was indeed not an easy task to eliminate the senators’ “persecution complex,” but Xiao Zishan also admitted that the senators’ worries were not without reason.

Liu Xiang had once paid him a special visit and advocated the theory that the Senate was the emperor. Xiao Zishan had no objection to the argument itself; it was just another way of saying “the Senate is the highest organ of power.” As for how to make the majority of senators truly feel that “the Senate is the highest organ of power” and believe that this highest organ of power would not be usurped by a few, Liu Xiang had no new ideas. When it came down to it, it was all about checks and balances. Xiao Zishan wasn’t opposed to having a proper senate or upper house, but unfortunately, the scale of the Senate was too small…

I wonder if the institutional reform proposed by the Law Society this time will put everyone at ease, he muttered to himself. Just then, Du Wen came over from the back row, stooping. She whispered something in Ma Qianzhu’s ear. Ma Qianzhu listened with a frown and said a few words. Xiao Zishan wondered what trouble Ms. Du was stirring up now. Could it still be about that “Report on the Rural Situation in the Hainan New Area”?

A few days ago, Du Wen had distributed this report to the Executive Committee. It listed the findings of her investigation in five or six counties. Although the investigation was simple and she had only spent a few days in each county, the problems were numerous: some of the policies formulated by the Senate, which they were very proud of, either could not be implemented in the rural areas or were completely distorted.

Xiao Zishan knew this was inevitable. The good governance and effective policies in Lin’gao were due to the “capital effect”—abundant manpower and resources, and fast information feedback. Once outside of Lin’gao, with only one or two senators leading a few naturalized cadres, it was already difficult to implement the policies at all. It was more a matter of making a semblance of it; whether the true essence was captured, only heaven knew.

However, this matter had caught the attention of the Executive Committee. Once the mainland campaign began, Guangzhou, one of the largest cities in Asia, if not the largest, would fall into the hands of the Senate. The difficulty of civil administration would clearly be incomparable to that of Qiongzhou Prefecture, which had a population of at most one hundred thousand.

Therefore, after discussion, the Executive Committee had already decided to arrange for senators from non-production departments to go to the grassroots level in various counties in Hainan for on-the-spot investigations, with a focus on the rural situation.

This alone would take up so much precious time! But if they didn’t do it, they would never know how many problems remained undiscovered, how many of the implemented policies were based on their “assumptions” or were “ill-suited to the local conditions.” They had to get a clear picture. Otherwise, if Mayor Liu went to Guangzhou and indiscriminately promoted “advanced experiences,” it would surely lead to a major disaster.