Database Entry: Visit the People, Benefit the People, Bring Together the Hearts of the People: The Culture of the Work Team of Koktoqay County Propaganda Department Leads to Gladdened Hearts
Forced Assimilation Flag-raising/Village meeting

Visit the People, Benefit the People, Bring Together the Hearts of the People: The Culture of the Work Team of Koktoqay County Propaganda Department Leads to Gladdened Hearts

December 06, 2017
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“What did you do?” “What did you bring to the masses?” “Years from now, will you have a clear conscience for what you are doing right now?” These three rhetorical questions are the Koktoqay County Propaganda Department Work Team’s self-inflicted torture, a ladder of progress in which the team continuously encourages itself to do good deeds. Even more, they are a “magic weapon” uniting the village’s “two committees,” concentrating the grassroots’ fighting power and consolidating the grassroots’ foundation.

The work team of the Koktoqay County Propaganda Department stationed in Ku’erte township’s Dala Awuzi village leads with modern culture. Through the five good activities—raising well the flag, publicizing well the policies that benefit the people, popularizing well laws and regulations, telling well stories of ethnic unity, serving well as citizens of the country, and through serving the people, visiting them in their homes, and exploring new ways to do good ideological and cultural work under the new situation, they irrigate the land with positive energy as if they were rain on a spring breeze, leading villagers to fervently love the motherland and staunchly follow the Party. They subtly concentrate the spirit and strengthen the foundation.



The work team also made full use of the summer vacation time to organize returning college students to carry out the “six ones” activities, that is, to take part in an exchange symposium, to “raise their voices and flash their swords” under the national flag, to take part in a home visit, to volunteer, to participate in a propaganda competition, and to teach a Mandarin language class. The team guided returning college students to use their newly-acquired knowledge to actively participate in the construction of their hometowns and make a modest contribution.

Kulemila Aiman, who is majoring in Chinese language and literature at Hunan University, returned to her hometown during the summer vacation. In the “live up to the mission, speak out bravely, youth carry the Chinese dream“ speech contest organized by the work team, she said excitedly: “The mentors and friends I have gained over the course of my studies come from all ethnic groups. They have given me a lot of help and encouragement. All ethnic groups are one family, and the family must live a good life. Today I am proud of the village, tomorrow the village will be proud of me.”

How can we unify the thoughts and pace of the majority of villagers? How can we mobilize the whole village to focus on the “general goal” to the greatest extent possible? How can we inspire deep feelings of patriotism and gratitude in the hearts of the people? This series of questions always lingered in the mind of every work team member.
Repeatedly analyzing the conditions of the village and the people, the work team was problem-oriented, identified breakthroughs, and flexibly explored the propaganda formats most appealing to the masses. This was through the “six lectures” methods – namely, lecturing at the weekly flag raising, lecturing during visits to “key” households, lecturing while modeling and demonstrating, lecturing during cultural activities, lecturing while going about the neighborhood, and lecturing during dispute resolution. The team also gave full play to local cultural talents performing the new kind “Aken” musical concert, integrating the themes of the Party’s kindness and changes to one’s hometown into brisk melodies. With catchy rhymes, they align with the common people’s “tastes,” celebrating the good life in song and greatly enhancing the masses’ sense of having gained something. These methods broke through the bottleneck problem of local audiences not fully grasping the theory and policies presented to them on the stage.



The work team also invited Madingbieke Mulatihan, a national model of national unity and progress, to come deliver a focused lecture on “de-extremification” to the village committee, and invited key business leaders from the ethnic and religious United Front to tell their own personal stories as examples, allowing the majority of villagers to better recognize the dangers of the “three evil forces” and “religious extremism,” to enhance their ability to understand the truth and distinguish right from wrong, and to inspire them to focus on the “general goal” and consciously participate in the village-level stability maintenance work.

In order to truly convey the voice of the Party to the farmers and herdsmen and to the hearts of the people, the work team compiled a series of important speeches by General Secretary Xi Jinping, major decisions of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Party Committee, policies that benefit the people, and similar items into a booklet. This bilingual Mandarin-Kazakh “propaganda manual” is interspersed with the propaganda slogans, images of the village, folk customs, and wonderful pictures of production and life. The booklet is distributed to villagers during household visits. The pictures and texts are simple and clear. It is convenient for the common people to take it out anytime, anywhere, repeatedly reading and understanding it, carefully learning through experience how much the Party cares. It has been well received by the villagers. Village elder Tabalake Hazibieke said: “I will leave the small blue book (propaganda booklet) to my children and grandchildren after reading it, so that the next generation will know how much the Party and the state cares for us, and encourage them to study hard and repay the motherland.”

Since the work team was stationed in the village, it has always insisted on using the masses to guide the masses, using “people around you talk about things around you, and using things around you teach people around you.” It has actively taken recommendations from organizations, from villagers, and from mass votes to select each season the top ten villagers for doing things such as “respecting the old and loving the young,” “maintaining stability and guarding the border,” and “raising the flag.” Those selected are given priority to be included in the “civilized households” and “safe families” selection. These advanced models and model figures are brought together at the Monday national flag raising ceremony, are vigorously commended, giving full play to their role as shining and motivating exemplars, and stimulating the villagers’ enthusiasm to “learn from the advanced and be a model.”

From the ranks of these advanced models, from farmer and herder Party members, and from returned college students, the work team formed a village-level propaganda squad, selecting “grassroots” preachers with strong expressive abilities, good Mandarin proficiency, a clear-cut stance, and a resolute viewpoint.. The squad comes from the grassroots and serves the grassroots, “accumulating small goodness for great goodness, and accumulating small virtues for great virtue.” They use “grass-roots language” to promote “the true, the good, and the beautiful” and to criticize “the false, the evil, and the ugly,” eloquently telling their own stories.

“你做了什么?”“你给身边的群众带来了什么?”“多年后,你是否问心无愧于现在的付出?”这三句反问,是富蕴县委宣传部工作队对自身的拷问,是他们不断勉励自己做好事、干好事的进步阶梯,更是协同村“两委”,拧成一股绳,凝聚基层战斗力,筑牢基层基础的重要“法宝”。

富蕴县委宣传部驻库尔特乡达拉阿吾孜村工作队以现代文化为引领,通过升好一面旗帜、宣好惠民政策、普好法律法规、讲好团结故事、当好国家公民等五个好活动,在为民服务、走访入户中、探索新形势下在群众中做好宣传思想文化工作的新路径,雨露春风般的将社会正能量的涓涓细流,灌溉在这片土地上,带领村民发自内心的热爱祖国,坚定步伐跟党走。在潜移默化中,凝魂聚气、强基固本。

“五一”期间工作队举办了一场文体活动,但老百姓的热情度并不高,这可让工作队陷入了深思。反复琢磨中发现,平日里开展的文体活动也多停留在唱歌跳舞,拔河赛跑的单一形式中,新颖度不够,老百姓的热情度逐渐减退情也有可原。

于是,工作队与村民朝夕相处中,着眼于小处,细心观察村民生产生活,寻找喜闻乐见的接地气的游戏。将哈萨克族民间传统游戏“阿斯克”“多依卜”等融入到比赛中来,再将生产中的“撵毛线”、“打羊毛”、“栓牛绳”“搬粮食比赛”“押夹”“比力气”等结合不同季节、不同年龄分组比拼,在玩乐中倡导大家,发挥团结合作、齐心协力的集体精神,进一步增强村民们的团队意识和大局意识。

工作队还充分利用暑假时间,组织返乡大学生开展“六个一”活动,即开展一次交流座谈会、国旗下发声亮剑一次、入户走访一次、当一次志愿者、参加一次宣讲比赛、教授一节国语课程。引导返乡大学生用所学知识积极投身家乡建设,献上绵薄之力。

在湖南大学就读汉语言文学专业的库乐米拉·艾曼暑假返乡,在工作队组织的“不辱使命勇发声青春承载中国梦”的演讲比赛中,她激动地说:“在我的学习生涯中,一路走来,我的良师益友来自各个民族,他们都给予了我很多的帮助和鼓励,各民族都是一家人,一家人都要过上好日子。今天我以村为荣,明天村必将以我为荣。”

如何统一广大村民群众的思想、统一步调,最大程度的调动全村上下聚焦“总目标”?怎样才能激发老百姓内心深处爱国感恩之情?这一连串的问题始终萦绕在每一位工作队员的心头。

工作队在反复分析村情民情的基础下,以问题为导向,找准突破口,以灵活的方式,探索群众喜闻乐见的宣讲形式。通过每周升国旗普遍讲、走访入户重点讲、模范典型示范讲、文化活动引领讲、走家串户唠嗑讲、化解纠纷案例讲的“六讲”方式,发挥本土文化能人“阿肯弹唱”的新形式,将党的恩情、家乡变化、融入轻快的曲调中,字字押韵,朗朗上口,符合老百姓的“口味”,讴歌美好的生活,大大增强了群众获得感。突破了台上讲理论政策,台下群众听不懂,摸不透的瓶颈问题。

现在,村里的阿肯多了,在村头院落会唱会说的人们只要拿起冬不拉,摇身一变成为“词曲达人”,用哈萨克族传统典故、格言代替深奥难懂的理论政策,使群众听得懂、记得牢、悟得深。九十岁高龄的热爱汉·米汉老人笑逐颜开地说:“这种宣讲方式加克斯(好),听弹唱,还能学习知识呢!”

工作队还邀请全国民族团结进步模范马丁别克·木拉提汗来村委会开展“去极端化”的集中宣讲,邀请民宗统战的业务骨干现身说法,用自身的故事,与生活相关的小列子为切入点,使广大村民群众进一步认清了“三股势力”和“宗教极端”的危害,增强了明真理,辨是非的能力,激发群众聚焦“总目标”,自觉参与到村级维稳工作的中来。

为了让党的声音真正的传达到农牧民身边,落到百姓心间,工作队将习近平总书记系列重要讲话、自治区党委重大决策部署、惠民政策等汇集成册,印制的汉哈两种语言的“宣传手册”,同时把宣传标语,村容村貌,风俗民情、生产生活的精彩图片穿插其中。在走访入户中,发放到村民手中。图文并茂、简单明了,便于老百姓随时随地拿出来,反复读、反复悟、仔仔细细的体会党的关怀,受到村民一致好评。四老人员塔巴拉客·哈孜别克说:“小蓝本(宣传手册),我读完还要留给儿孙读,让后一辈知道党和国家对我们的关怀,鼓励他们好好学习,回报祖国。”

工作队自驻村以来,始终坚持用群众引导群众,用“身边人讲身边事,身边事教身边人”。积极采取组织推荐、村民自荐、群众投票等方式,每季度从村民中选出“尊老爱幼”“维稳戍边”“升旗标兵”等十佳村民,优先纳入“文明户”“平安家庭”等评选。将先进典型和模范人物汇聚到周一升国旗仪式中,进行大力表彰,发挥他们的辐射带动作用,激发村民“学先进、当典型”的热情。

工作队从先进典型、农牧民党员、返乡大学生中选出表达能力强,国语水平好,旗帜鲜明、立场坚定的“草根”宣讲员,组建村级宣讲队伍,他们来自基层又服务基层,以“积小善为大善,积小德为大德”的事例,用“草根语言”宣传“真善美”,批判“假恶丑”,娓娓道来讲述自身的故事。

“凡人英雄”“草根典型”凭借自身的亲和力、感染力和影响力,发挥着一个人带动一群人、一群人带动一方人的重要作用。从而使宣传思想工作重心下移,进一步让群众对向善向上行为有了更深刻的认识,促进在全村形成崇德向善的社会风尚。

富蕴县委宣传部工作队从小处出发,用心用情让文化引领滋润着民心,努力探索出一条“群众宣传理论、理论武装群众”的道路,让村民的思想认识在潜移默化中浸润,在悄无声息中转变。让村民心中的爱祖国、感党恩、听党话、跟党走的心声,汇聚成维护社会稳定和长治久安的强大合力。

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