(Clearwisdom.net) I am a middle-aged police officer in China. People have often looked back upon and thought about the past several decades during which the country was filled with turmoil and setbacks under the Party's rule. "Opening up and reform" was supposed to be a good thing. However, ever since the Jiang group began to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, people who cultivate "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," what have we really done? In what direction are we heading? I think it's time for us to really think about these issues and do some self-examination.
I am not a Falun Gong practitioner, but I know them well. I understand what they are thinking and doing. At the same time, since I am also a police officer and a civil servant. I know clearly what the police and civil servants are thinking and doing. I can say that Jiang's persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, using the whole Party and state apparatus, is a huge mistake. To put it simply, the persecution can be called an outrageous crime.
Firstly, Jiang's motives to persecute Falun Gong are based entirely on his fear of threats to and disturbance of his power. So, he chose to make an enemy of a huge group of people without any rationality or forethought, regardless of whether the practitioners have done good or bad. Secondly, regarding the methods of persecution, from high levels to the grassroots, every measure Jiang's group has taken throughout the whole period of the persecution was illegal. For example, Jiang passed down his "letter to the Standing Committee" as an official central government document to be obeyed without question. He convicted Falun Gong of fabricated crimes, and then made new laws and falsified evidence to support the convictions.
He replaces laws, regulations and political documents with oral edicts that are "not to be recorded on paper." He uses the judiciary to deal with Falun Gong, and yet no usual legal procedures ever are followed. Furthermore, in terms of the specific persecution methods when dealing with Falun Gong practitioners, many cruel, inhuman and even savage methods have been used. Falun Gong practitioners did not say anything against those who deserve to be called bad guys. Even less did they say they were against so and so or they would overthrow so and so. Yet, Jiang sets his mind to doom them to death simply because they say, "Falun Dafa is good." How disgraceful! How pathetic!
After entering the 21st century, the Jiang group's top priority has been to persecute Falun Gong. Strange things that followed are indeed incomprehensible and unacceptable for a sane mind. Obviously everyone knows that Falun Gong practitioners are good people and that many are upstanding government officials who don't smoke, drink, fight, curse, take bribes or embezzle money. Yet he still hates them and plots to "fix" them. Although je obviously knows his edicts are against the constitution. He has created new inhuman and atrocious "laws" and ordered his minions to carry them out.
Although we obviously know that Falun Gong practitioners do not wish to become high level officials or take power from anyone, still we claim that practitioners want to do this and that. We know that Jiang's group is pushing the Party, the government and the Chinese people toward a dangerous dead end, an abyss of disaster, yet we still think that patriotism means supporting Jiang, that supporting him is the same as supporting the Party and the government. Is this what we really need for the Chinese people now and in the future?
In fact, the illegal persecution of Falun Gong involves far more than Falun Gong itself. Tomorrow, the regime may use the same illegal methods to persecute Christianity, Buddhism, etc. After that, it might turn to dissidents, people with different political views and people disliked by the ruler. When will the much-advocated "rule of law" society truly come into being? Today's China is filled with harmful deceit and backward thinking. People who tell lies get promoted and people who tell the truth suffer loss and disdain, and yet you insist on "transforming" the only people left who dare to tell the truth into people who tell lies, curse and commit wrong deeds. Surely the Chinese people do not have to be such a low race that they only deserve to live in a filthy society filled with hypocrisy, atrocity and ugliness. If people were not even guaranteed such basic human rights, then any talk on human rights would be a joke. Even if you don't practice Falun Gong, you would still need human rights. Respecting and upholding the human rights of others is respecting and maintaining our own human rights. Do you really think that the Chinese people, including yourself, do not deserve to have basic human rights?
Under the Jiang group's brutal persecution, many non-practitioners display great fear whenever Falun Gong is mentioned, especially some Falun Gong practitioners' family members. They even unreasonably transform this fear into hatred toward their loved ones who practice Falun Gong. Who are they afraid of? What are they afraid of? Obviously, they are not afraid of their family members. They are afraid of the evilness and atrocity from the people in power. This malicious pressure from [people in] power twisted the minds of many people who were good before. People who were close comrades-in-arms, intimate friends, and dearly loved ones turned into enemies and they even irrationally bring harm upon practitioners. Some of them defend themselves by saying, "It's the government's order. I can't help it." Some take advantage of the opportunity to get benefits and promotions for themselves.
In contrast, those kind and gentle elderly people, women, children, practitioners from all walks of society, show no anger, violence or fear at all in front of the fully armed "people's police" who beat and kick them. They are truly great. On the other hand, many family members of Falun Gong practitioners and those in power who have some conscience left are still compromising to the evil forces, and they don't even dare to speak one just word to uphold the basic rights of their family members and their subordinates. Compared to the Falun Gong practitioners, they are cowardly.
What are we doing, really? To where are we being led? I think any Chinese person with a sense of justice and conscience would have this question and indignation in mind. In fact, what we should really be doing is to do things according to objective rules and standards instead of our own subjective presumptions. We should try our best to prevent the vicious circle that brings disaster to the country and the people. In this vicious circle, we first turn the country upside down and when everyone has had enough and the people can no longer suppress their anger, we then look back and correct our mistakes. The current situation is indeed senseless. If we don't change, how can we, the Chinese people, claim that we are mature, civilized and powerful?
A People's Police Officer
September 1, 2002