Dharamsala, January 12 – A provincial-level government office has absolutely no authority to exceed the principles and provisions of a basic law by issuing regulations without authority and in contravention of the law, a petition signed by prominent Tibetans, including retired Chinese government officials and educationalists, in Qinghai province, said.
The petition sent on October 24, 2010 recommended the scrapping of proposed education reforms that the petitioners said contravened Chinese laws and feared would lead to Tibetan being sidelined as the language of instruction in Tibetan areas, according to the Washington based International Campaign for Tibet.
The petitioners argued that the implementation of the proposed education reforms would be “in serious contempt of the authority of the nation’s laws.
“Unless the National People’s Congress revises the Autonomy Law, an administrative office, such as a provincial-level government office, has absolutely no authority to exceed the principles and provisions of a basic law by issuing regulations without authority and in contravention of the law,” the petition said.
The petitioners urge the authorities to regard their stance not as one “that has to be overcome,” but instead to deal with the issue as “an important political duty, an important people’s-hearts project, and with great efforts and great determination, focus closely on achieving good results.”
Copies of the petition were sent to the provincial education department in Xining, the Ministry of Education in Beijing, key Chinese Communist Party offices at the national and provincial level, and offices in the six Tibetan autonomous prefectures in Qinghai province.
The document translated into English by ICT includes recommendations that ICT said would ensure “stability” and the protection and development of the Tibetan language.
The petition was sent in the wake of protests by thousands of students in towns and on school campuses across the Tibetan region of Amdo that encompasses large parts of Qinghai province, with a similar protest by Tibetan students also reported at Minzu University in Beijing, over replacement of Tibetan language by Chinese as the medium of instruction.
The pettition, ICT said, is notable for its command of the legal implications of the proposed reforms, citing numerous articles from several key pieces of Chinese legislation which ostensibly protect the rights of Tibetans and other non-Chinese people in the PRC to study, use and develop their own language.
The petitioners argue that the education reforms would be “in serious contempt of the authority of the nation’s laws.”
The legal arguments made in the petition challenges the pronouncements made by the head of the Qinghai Education Department, Wang Yubo, characterizing his claim that the proposed reforms confirm to national laws as “irrational.”
The petition was submitted under the provisions of the Regional Nationality Law on Autonomy (RNLA), which is only next to Constitution for administering Tibetan and other “minority nationality” regions of the People’s Republic of China, and under the terms of which the central authorities are beholden to reply to the petition within 60 days of its receipt. If the petition was submitted on the day it is dated, October 24, 2010, the deadline for a response is estimated to be on or around January 14, 2011.
