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Our Response to the Beijing Bar Association's "Serious Statement"
On Friday September 5, the Beijing Bar Association on its official website published "The Beijing Bar Association's Serious Statement in Response to a Small Number of Lawyers' Call for So-Called 'Direct Elections to the Beijing Bar Association'." The statement said: "Recently a small number of lawyers jointly issued a petition and posted it on the Internet entitled "Accord With the Tide of History, Directly Elect the Beijing Bar Association--Announcement To All Beijing Lawyers, Beijing Justice Bureau, and the Beijing Bar Association." The announcement purported to promote the cause of democracy, and questioned the legality of the standing of the Beijing Bar Association. Soon after, some Beijing lawyers began receiving text messages from these lawyers, baiting them by calling for reduced Bar Association membership fees, a restructuring of the tax system, and stirring up lawyers with calls for so-called "Direct Elections to the Beijing Bar Association. Any individual who uses text messages, the web or other media to privately promote and disseminate the concept of direct elections, express controversial opinions, thereby spreading rumors within the Beijing Bar Association, confuse and poison people's minds, and convince people of circumstances that do not exist regarding the so-called "Call For Direct Elections For the Beijing Bar Association" is illegal. They are using the opportunity of the end of the tenure of the present Bar Association administration to manipulate the enthusiasm of some lawyers to participate in the management process, using the banner of "Democratic Bar Association Management," is a vain attempt to evade the supervision of the Justice Bureau and the Bar Association's professional management."
We are the lawyers who jointly issued the statement: "Accord With the Tide of History, Directly Elect the Beijing Bar Association--Announcement To All Beijing Lawyers, Beijing Justice Bureau, and the Beijing Bar Association." In addition to issuing this statement, we used text messages, posted letters and other means to call on all Beijing lawyers to demand their rights and actively participate in the upcoming election for representatives to the Beijing Bar Association. Our objective is clear, to mobilize the mass of Beijing lawyers to assert their legal rights, and prevent the Beijing Bar Association from being controlled and turning into a special interest clique. We want to elect representatives who will defend the real interests and legal rights of the majority of Beijing's lawyers. The Lawyer's Law clearly states that the Bar Association is an autonomous social organization and its representatives are chosen by election and of course it must submit to the supervision of its members. The Bar Association represents all lawyers. As members we feel an obligation to concern ourselves with the outcome of this leadership transition and actively participate in the election. All of our actions and speech have been aimed at promoting the Bar Association's democratic election and democratic supervision. We are doing what members of the Bar Association should do. Our actions are both legal and proper.
But we greatly regret that the Beijing Bar Association considers itself an entity independent of its lawyer constituency and has completely inverted the master and servant relationship. It not only did not support the active participation of some of its lawyer members in its election process, but on the contrary wrote such a threatening and alarming statement in response to this effort. It characterized our completely reasonable call for a reduction of membership fees as "Incitement speech." It called our appeal for all lawyer members to participate in the direct election of the Bar Association board and presidency as "the pretense of promoting democratic elections." It described our networking via cell phones, the Internet and other legal media to generate support and seek candidates as "Illicit coordinating." It describes the participating, supporting, and appealing actions of more and more lawyers as "not understanding the true circumstances" and being "misled." And it says that lawyers taking the initiative as constituents and legally exercising their right to free speech and criticizing their insufficient supervision in the past and calling for democratic elections as "illegal." And it portrays a group of lawyers actively promoting the democratic self-government activity of citizens as "comprehensively violating the present Bar Association management system, the justice system, and the political system." We are deeply sorry and regretful that at this time in the 21st century that our country is trying to carry out the socialist democratic rule of law, the Beijing Bar Association would issue such a strong Cultural Revolution-like statement.
Orderly participation by citizens in promoting progress of the democratic rule of law, pursuing people being the master of their own affairs, is our country's people and the ruling party's objective of struggle. As lawyers actively promoting the democratic election of the representatives of our professional organization, its democratic policymaking and democratic supervision completely accords with the the tide of history, and contrary to opposing the political system as the Beijing Bar Association alleges, it actively accords with and puts into practice the political system. This autumn the Beijing Bar Association will have its regularly scheduled leadership change. We call on all Beijing lawyers to exercise their legal rights and demand to participate in the democratic election of new Bar Association representatives. We also hope that the Beijing Bar Association, as an autonomous organization of lawyers, accords with the law and carries out our called-for direct election of its representatives, reduces the membership fee and reflects on its work and welcomes the participation, democratic election, policymaking, and supervision of its lawyer constituents.
Finally, in view of the Bar Association's "Serious Statement" slandering our legal action, we urgently call on the Bar Association to publicize who participated in the drafting and disseminating of this "Serious Statement" and that they issue a public apology. We will also continue to look into the legal liability of those who participated in this tortuous action.
As Beijing Bar Association members, we have the right to reiterate:
1. The forthcoming leadership transition of the Beijing Bar Association should be the result of a direct democratic election. This process should be guided, supervised and carried out according to law by the municipal justice bureau and all lawyer members of the Beijing Bar Association should participate.
2. The direct election of the Beijing Bar Association's president and board of directors should begin from this leadership transition.
3. To ensure the protection of the legal rights of Beijing's lawyers to select the Bar Association's representatives, and to promote effective supervision of the Bar Association's work, our draft copy of the "Beijing Bar Association's Election Regulations" (name can be changed) should be put to a vote and passed if 1/2 the Bar Association membership approves.
4. Draft the Beijing Bar Association's written regulations and submit it to the membership's review and evaluation.
5. Bar Association membership fees should be reasonably readjusted, with at minimum a 50 percent decrease implemented.
6. Immediately audit and publicize the Bar Association's past years' revenue and expenditures, and publicize the decisionmaking process and revenue and expenditures of the Bar Association's office building.
7. Immediately remove the discriminatory "W" ("waidi") mark on the professional work cards of lawyers from outside Beijing, and issue an apology to these lawyers.
Beijing lawyers participating in the "Accord With the Tide of History, Directly Elect the Beijing Bar Association--Announcement To All Beijing Lawyers, Beijing Justice Bureau, and the Beijing Bar Association" campaign.
Saturday September 6, 2008