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鲍彤近影 |
一个瘦弱的老者，79岁，身穿灰褐色衬衣，剪着短平头，坐在快餐店里，他就是鲍彤，毫不起眼。但眼中有一种光芒，显出男子汉的自信和无畏。
"现在，我就是我，"他说，"过去有党纪约束。他们把我开除出党，我的脑子就解放了。"
鲍曾经是前中共领导人赵紫阳的秘书，1989年同情示威者，现在正在软禁中度其馀生。那一年，发生了天安门事件，他坐牢7年，1996年刑满，但至今离自由人还很遥远。
"出狱后，我一天二十四小时被监视，"他泰然介绍道，"今天也有人盯梢。天天如此。有时就坐在附近。有时可能给咱们录音。"
"我适应了，"他补充了一句，"一旦没有人盯梢，反而会有失落感。"
作为一个外国记者，我在中国已经习惯于和异议人士在快餐店里进行紧张而短暂的会面，每逢这种场合，大家坐立不安，轻声低语，还得东张西望，提防有人监视。
但鲍彤不同。他安详，不惊不慌，即使在伴奏乐澹出的时候，他继续侃侃而谈。
"赵紫阳健在时，我还不可能完全放开，"他说，"因为有顾虑，怕株连他。"
现在，这位八旬老人终于轻鬆了。他语带调侃，吃吃而笑："我告诉当局：要是你们认为刘晓波有罪应该坐牢，那你们也应该把我抓去坐牢。坐牢也是一件好事情，可以帮助人民认识政府!"
鲍彤尖锐地批评现在的领导人。他这样评价当局："这个党没有纲领，无所谓社会主义，无所谓共产主义。他们一味追逐权力。"
他说，共产党织造了能够控制全民的"最严密的网"。
"这个党比皇帝厉害。没有一个皇帝拥有八千万有生力量，共产党有。每个公司，每个法院，都有党支部。党领导一切，领导律师，领导记者。哪个皇帝比得上共产党?"他问。
他说，国家没有法治，腐败在党员中蔓延滋长。
"今天我要是当官，一定腐败。人家会叫我儿子去当董事长。要是我说他不行，别人就会说，'我儿子行，爲什么你儿子不行?'如果我拒绝，他们就说我不同舟共济，就会把我抛出船外。"他说。
但对未来习近平主席领导的新政府，鲍仍然抱有希望。他相信，当局如能主动变革，也许可以挽回某些合法性。
"当局应该争取主动，"他说，"如果他们承认过去犯过错误，老百姓是会原谅他们的。"
至于未来，鲍认为中国共产党无疑还能维持下去，但不会永远。"我不知道什么时候会发生什么事情，但没有一种极权制度是会永世长存的。"
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November 2, 2012
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China: Change Or Crisis
At 79, Ex-Party Official Lambastes Chinese Leaders
by Louisa Lim/NPR
Once a top Communist Party figure, 79-year-old Bao Tong was kicked out after he
sympathized with the student protesters in 1989.
text size AAA
October 29, 2012
The frail 79-year-old in a pale brown shirt with close-cropped hair sitting at a
fast-food restaurant table looks absolutely unremarkable. But Bao Tong has a
lightness in his eyes, a confidence that speaks of a man whose conscience is
clear, a man with nothing to fear.
"I have become my own person," he says. "When I was a Communist Party member, I
had to follow party discipline. When they threw me out of the party, my brain
was set free."
Bao was once secretary to Zhao Ziyang, the reformist Communist Party leader who
sympathized with protesters in 1989 and spent the rest of his life under house
arrest. In the aftermath of Tiananmen Square events that year, Bao spent seven
years in prison. He was released in 1996, but his life is hardly that of a free
man.
"After leaving prison, I was followed 24 hours a day," he says, with an airy
lack of concern. "Some people came with me today. They always come with me. They
sit near me. They might record."
"I'm totally used to it," he adds. "If they're not with me, I feel lost."
As a foreign journalist in China, I'm used to tense, truncated meetings with
dissidents in noisy fast-food restaurants, where we sit nervously, communicating
in low voices, constantly scanning for signs of surveillance.
With Bao, it's totally different. He's calm and unflustered, speaking loudly
even when the music dips.
"I couldn't speak so freely when Zhao Ziyang was alive," he admits. "I was
scared I might draw him in."
But now, this octogenarian is relaxed, chuckling gently as he describes goading
his security agents.
"I say to them, 'If you think [jailed Nobel peace laureate] Liu Xiaobo should be
in prison, then you can send me to prison with him.' There are advantages to
being in prison. It makes people realize how cruel this government is," he says.
There's no ideology, there's no socialism, there's no communism. All that's left
is power.
- Bao Tong, on the current leadership in China
Harsh Criticism For Current Leaders
Bao is damning in his assessment of the current administration: "There's no
ideology, there's no socialism, there's no communism. All that's left is power."
He describes the Communist Party as having "the tightest net" of control over
the population.
"The party is more powerful than an emperor. No emperor could mobilize and
organize 80 million people. Every company and every law court has a party
branch. They're all under the party's control, including lawyers and newspapers.
What emperor could do that?" he asks.
He decries the explosion of corruption among party members, blaming the absolute
lack of respect for the rule of law.
"If I were an official, I'd definitely be corrupt. People would say, 'How about
your son becoming the chairman of the board in a state-owned company?' If I
refused, they would say, 'If my son can become one, why can't your son?' If I
still said he wouldn't do it, then they wouldn't consider me as being in the
same boat as them. So they would push me out of the boat," he says.
But Bao still has hopes for the new administration that will be headed by a new
president, Xi Jinping. He believes that if the administration can act fast in
pushing through reforms, it may be able to claw back some legitimacy.
"They need to be pro-active," he says. "If they admit that many mistakes were
made in the past, the people would immediately forgive them."
As for the future, Bao has no doubt that China's Communist Party can postpone
its demise, but not indefinitely, "I don't know if it will happen soon, but it
will definitely end one day. No totalitarian system can last for long."
