10-23-2007, 10:14 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Umbrellas open here as it rains in Beijing </b>
pioneer.com
VR Jayaraj | Kochi
Inclusion of religion in Communist Party of China's constitution sparks debate in Kerala
Communists in Kerala used to unfurl their umbrellas whenever it rained in Moscow. Debates used to rage here over Krushchev and Brezhnev while EMS Namboodiripad ruled supreme in the world of Marxist theatrics. Then, perhaps, their fatherland was the (erstwhile) Soviet Union. It all began to wane after USSR invaded Afghanistan and it came to a dead end when the fatherland disintegrated in the beginning of the 1990s.
The scene has now shifted to Beijing. <b>The intelligentsia of Kerala has lost its sleep over a new word in the constitution of the Communist Party of China: Religion.</b> The CPC has been atheistic officially so far but it had never prohibited religious beliefs of party members. The Communist theorists -- former and existing -- have lost sleep over the "surprising" shift in the CPC policy towards religion, and those who had once shouted "China's chairman is our chairman" during the time of Mao Zedong are divided over the new development.
Television channels on Sunday night were loud with discussions on the subject, with almost all the anchors posing the same question -- "What does this mean?" -- to the participants. Almost none of them had any clear answer, but ex-communist intellectual K Venu, who later would contest an Assembly election as a candidate of the UDF, led by the same man (K Karunakaran) and party which had worked overtime to crush people like him, saw the dawn of a new thought and political process in China. Venu saw the introduction of the word 'religion' into the CPC constitution as one appropriate for the times.
Venu has an opinion, of course, as he has almost on any issue (a Maoist said Venu's logic was simple: That he would adopt a position that is diametrically opposite to the one generally accepted by the communists). The other intellectuals, like KEN Kunhahmed, a formal spokesman of the communist culture, did not have one to offer. Still, the debates raged.
But there were not many who asked the vital question: Has CPC ever opposed religion? Did the simple absence of the word religion mean that the party constitution was against religion? Somehow, the television anchors also did not feel like asking this question. Rather, that was not their issue.
But those who are serious in supporting and opposing the theories on religion's role in a communist set-up are unanimous in their opinion that the entry of the word "religion" into the CPC constitution has nothing to do with the "glasnost" and "perestroika" now taking place in China. They say that the "new openness" to terms like religion and democracy has no relation to China 's present efforts at economic liberalisation.
<b>"The official inclusion of religion in the party constitution will in fact go against the interests of liberalisation. As far as I can see, the considerations are totally different and our intellectuals seem to miss the point,"</b> says a radical communist theoretician, who prefers to remain anonymous because he does not want to be seen holding an unfurled umbrella while it rains in the Forbidden City.
<b>He says the considerations for including the term religion in the constitution is still the anti-American sentiment prevalent among the Chinese.</b>
Freddy Thazhath of the CPI(ML) Red Flag says Mao Zedong had taken particular care not to annoy party members who were believers. The CPC had formed a special battery, the Muslim Red Army, during the years of revolution, and Mao had specifically asked the party bigwigs not to ask any of the members of that army why they did not eat pork. "Keralites who now unfurl their umbrellas as it rains in Beijing perhaps do not remember this," he said.
Freddy says that the intention, as far as he can see, behind the new term in the constitution is a new opening in places like Tibet and Myanmar, where the Americans are most likely to focus on once their relations with India blossom fully. CPC general secretary Hu Jintao has to think of a Communist consolidation in Tibet with the blessings of the Panchen Lama and help of all the Buddhists against the Americans who support the Dalai Lama, says Freddy.
<b>"The same justification is true in the case of immediate neighbour Myanmar, where Buddhist monks are on the streets as the cry against the junta is growing louder. The idea is to strengthen party defence including the Buddhists -- and also Muslims, Christians and Taoists -- against any US-backed precipitations," says Freddy. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
pioneer.com
VR Jayaraj | Kochi
Inclusion of religion in Communist Party of China's constitution sparks debate in Kerala
Communists in Kerala used to unfurl their umbrellas whenever it rained in Moscow. Debates used to rage here over Krushchev and Brezhnev while EMS Namboodiripad ruled supreme in the world of Marxist theatrics. Then, perhaps, their fatherland was the (erstwhile) Soviet Union. It all began to wane after USSR invaded Afghanistan and it came to a dead end when the fatherland disintegrated in the beginning of the 1990s.
The scene has now shifted to Beijing. <b>The intelligentsia of Kerala has lost its sleep over a new word in the constitution of the Communist Party of China: Religion.</b> The CPC has been atheistic officially so far but it had never prohibited religious beliefs of party members. The Communist theorists -- former and existing -- have lost sleep over the "surprising" shift in the CPC policy towards religion, and those who had once shouted "China's chairman is our chairman" during the time of Mao Zedong are divided over the new development.
Television channels on Sunday night were loud with discussions on the subject, with almost all the anchors posing the same question -- "What does this mean?" -- to the participants. Almost none of them had any clear answer, but ex-communist intellectual K Venu, who later would contest an Assembly election as a candidate of the UDF, led by the same man (K Karunakaran) and party which had worked overtime to crush people like him, saw the dawn of a new thought and political process in China. Venu saw the introduction of the word 'religion' into the CPC constitution as one appropriate for the times.
Venu has an opinion, of course, as he has almost on any issue (a Maoist said Venu's logic was simple: That he would adopt a position that is diametrically opposite to the one generally accepted by the communists). The other intellectuals, like KEN Kunhahmed, a formal spokesman of the communist culture, did not have one to offer. Still, the debates raged.
But there were not many who asked the vital question: Has CPC ever opposed religion? Did the simple absence of the word religion mean that the party constitution was against religion? Somehow, the television anchors also did not feel like asking this question. Rather, that was not their issue.
But those who are serious in supporting and opposing the theories on religion's role in a communist set-up are unanimous in their opinion that the entry of the word "religion" into the CPC constitution has nothing to do with the "glasnost" and "perestroika" now taking place in China. They say that the "new openness" to terms like religion and democracy has no relation to China 's present efforts at economic liberalisation.
<b>"The official inclusion of religion in the party constitution will in fact go against the interests of liberalisation. As far as I can see, the considerations are totally different and our intellectuals seem to miss the point,"</b> says a radical communist theoretician, who prefers to remain anonymous because he does not want to be seen holding an unfurled umbrella while it rains in the Forbidden City.
<b>He says the considerations for including the term religion in the constitution is still the anti-American sentiment prevalent among the Chinese.</b>
Freddy Thazhath of the CPI(ML) Red Flag says Mao Zedong had taken particular care not to annoy party members who were believers. The CPC had formed a special battery, the Muslim Red Army, during the years of revolution, and Mao had specifically asked the party bigwigs not to ask any of the members of that army why they did not eat pork. "Keralites who now unfurl their umbrellas as it rains in Beijing perhaps do not remember this," he said.
Freddy says that the intention, as far as he can see, behind the new term in the constitution is a new opening in places like Tibet and Myanmar, where the Americans are most likely to focus on once their relations with India blossom fully. CPC general secretary Hu Jintao has to think of a Communist consolidation in Tibet with the blessings of the Panchen Lama and help of all the Buddhists against the Americans who support the Dalai Lama, says Freddy.
<b>"The same justification is true in the case of immediate neighbour Myanmar, where Buddhist monks are on the streets as the cry against the junta is growing louder. The idea is to strengthen party defence including the Buddhists -- and also Muslims, Christians and Taoists -- against any US-backed precipitations," says Freddy. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->