Democracy à la China

I read in (Swedish broadsheet) Svenska Dagbladet the other day that Chinese school kids are choosing class reps in free elections. Perhaps a good sign for the future, or not...

The article tells the story of some third graders who are choosing a class constabulary, a story that is the subject of a coming documentary "Please Vote for Me" looking at how free elections take place in an autocracy (presumably to be shown in the non-Chinese world). The election campaign is a tough one and seems to centre around pointing out the opponent's bad sides. "You don't have any self-confidence", says one eight-year-old and points out to the class that his opponent cried again recently. "You won't be able to control the class if you're that sensitive."

The Chinese director Chen says he wanted to do the documentary because he expected to see unrepressed, naive longing for freedom, but the third graders, pushed hard by their parents to win the attractive position, turn out to be shrewd political players. One father supports his candidate son by buying the class gifts and excursions and says to his son: "[Opponent] Cheng Cheng will probably say that you hit your classmates. Then you must say 'I have supervision over the class and if I'm not strict they will not obey me'".

The director argues that the Chinese one-child policy means that the children are always surrounded by adults and therefore very early on absorb the rules of the social game. And thus also those of the dictatorship. In this way children provide an interesting reflection of the adult world's values. According to Chen the school elections demonstrate how long the road to democracy in China is. "The dictatorship's values sit deep down in the Chinese society and free elctions are far from the same as when a country is governed by democratic ideas."

Who won the election? The little dictator Luo Lei with the bribing father. The bribes, the tough hand and the speech about the good leader who punishes his subjects seem to have been a hit with the classmates.