Chapter 1666 - Senator Marriage and Inheritance Law (I)

At the same time, they would clean up the concurrent positions of Senators. Currently, the Senate had established too many offices and divisions. Senators often held multiple positions, sometimes even randomly assigned "forced marriages" of concurrent posts. Under the new system, divisions lacking responsible full-time Senators and beyond the capability of naturalized cadres to handle alone would be merged or revoked to reduce the number of concurrent positions held by Senators, focusing on reducing cross-departmental concurrent posts. Certain important positions would become full-time, no longer concurrent.

These measures could not completely prevent Senators from privately greeting others to exercise personal influence, but at least they would significantly increase the cost of intervention for Senators, reducing their interest in interfering with other departments' work.

In the document, Ma Jia further proposed that in order to reduce personal intervention by Senators in the personnel matters of naturalized citizens, the "Organizational Personnel Regulations" should be compiled and published as soon as possible, clarifying the specific processes and procedures for the selection, appointment, transfer, and reward or punishment of naturalized cadres.

"This matter has to be handled by Comrade Ming Lang from the Organization Department," Ma Jia said at the internal meeting. "Comrade Yang Yun comes from a human resources background. The employment system of enterprises differs from that of officialdom."

On this side, Wu De and Zhan Wuya were surrounded by Senators from the industrial sector. The abolition of the Manufacturing Inspectorate had left these Senators who had been working in the industrial sector confused. The current Ministry of Production and Economy was equivalent to merging the industrial and commercial sectors. In particular, listing all current state-owned and joint-venture enterprises as "National Policy Companies" and merging them under the management of the Planning Agency... These shifting adjustments had left the industrial sector Senators, who rarely concerned themselves with systemic issues, thoroughly bewildered.

"I'm not distrusting Wu De; we've cooperated quite well these past few years. But the Planning Agency is not an industrial department after all. I'm afraid there will be barriers in communication."

"If the Ministry of Production and Economy gets a Senator from the commercial sector as leader, how do we communicate if they don't understand the business?"

"I declare—if Old Lady Li becomes this high official, I won't work in the industrial sector anymore!"

"Inspector Zhan, you can't leave!"

"Factories all go to the Planning Agency—what does the Ministry of Production and Economy actually manage? Isn't this one woman marrying two husbands?"

"...Work in the industrial sector will continue normally according to existing procedures," Wu De explained patiently. "The process is the same as your previous relationship with the Manufacturing Inspectorate. The Planning Agency manages capital, or shares, and does not directly intervene in the production, operation, and management of enterprises. Specific production operation management is still handled by your respective counterpart industrial departments..."

According to the System Reform Draft, existing state-owned enterprises, except for "Level I National Policy Companies" with strategic significance, would all adopt "mixed ownership," issuing large and small non-tradable shares. Besides being open to Senators, shares would also be issued to naturalized citizens and indigenous people in the future. At the same time, to reflect the spirit of "benefits tilting towards frontline Senators," the Planning Agency would implement a policy of shareholding for Senators serving in enterprises. Senators working on the front lines of enterprises could hold dividend rights to a certain amount of corporate shares according to their position. These shares could not be sold or taken away and would not be enjoyed after leaving the enterprise.

The chaotic discussion lasted until nightfall before the meeting adjourned. Various amendments were collected. Qian Shuiting led the conference secretariat to copy these amendments overnight and sent them to the printing factory. Under Zhou Dongtian's supervision, they were delivered to the labor camp printing house for typesetting and printing—the workers there were all prisoners sentenced to death or life imprisonment with hard labor.

The next day, the meeting was held as usual. First, the amendments proposed by Senators the previous day were distributed. In the feedback for the First Amendment, Xiao Zishan proposed that the Senate should be granted certain intervention rights over the personal lives and families of Senators. This was to avoid "events damaging Senators' rights and families" and simultaneously maintain "the overall prestige of the Senate."

The Senators naturally knew what Xiao Zishan's proposal meant. Although this matter had not been officially announced, Senators privately knew more or less about it. Many were indignant. Some even publicly clamored to abolish Old Zhang's Senator seat, drive this "Shame of the Senate" out of the Senate, and "demote to native status"; others questioned why the General Office and powerful departments had not intervened in time, and why the "criminal" was not "executed by slow slicing" or "burned to death in public" immediately after such an event occurred to "warn others."

The answer from the General Office and the Arbitration Tribunal was that they were restricted by the regulation that "Senators' person and freedom are not interfered with or infringed upon by any party." The final power of judgment over a Life Secretary offending a Senator lay in the hands of the Senator himself. Without his consent, neither the General Office nor powerful departments could take any action. Given Old Zhang's own ambiguous attitude, there was still no formal disposal result for this matter.

Xiao Zishan's proposal was simple, roughly stating that "after an event infringing on a Senator's person and family occurs, when the Senator involved cannot normally exercise Senatorial power for various reasons and cannot correctly maintain the interests and image of all Senators, the Senate authorizes the Senate General Office and the Arbitration Tribunal to take all necessary measures for disposal. When taking action, a representative dispatched by the Senate shall accompany the whole process."

This proposal passed quickly, leveraging the Old Zhang's Maid Event, and was listed as a formal clause of the First Amendment.

"...This regulation not only holds great significance for protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Senators, but conversely, it is also a constraint on certain Senators—a constraint proper for a human being." Ji Xin spoke with fervor on the podium. "Our Senate is the most powerful group in this spacetime. Possessing immense capabilities that others do not—as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. We must more strictly abide by the bottom line of basic human morality and must not do whatever we want under the guise of Senators being sacred and inviolable..."

"Senator's freedom is deprived by yet another point." Shan Liang was heartbroken. He cursed Old Zhang ten thousand times in his heart: You like kneeling on a washboard? Fine—but don't drag your daughter into it! If not for you, how could the Senate pass such a super SB amendment regulation? With this, the General Office, which used to be submissive before Senators and appeared as a purely service organization, now has the power to directly interfere in Senators' lives. In the future, when I drip wax on Shan Huixiang, as long as a few Senators who like to kick stones complain—like that Senator Du—the General Office can grandiosely come to interfere. How can I play happily with maids anymore...

Ji Xin also put forward a proposal suggesting revision of the clause "Senators do not bear any legal responsibility" in the original "Common Program"—this had already been stipulated in the "Senate Disciplinary Regulations"—but Ji Xin's proposal went a step further, proposing to write this clause into the "First Amendment to the Common Program," changing the Senator's legal privilege to "Senators enjoy automatic pardon rights and need not bear any criminal responsibility"; clarifying that Senators are bound by various laws promulgated by the Senate, and any illegal behavior can be prosecuted, convicted, and pursued for civil liability.

Senators discussed this proposal and finally passed it after modifying certain clauses.

The modified part first reiterated that the power to investigate, prosecute, try, and execute Senators belongs to the Senate; cases involving Senators adopt a "one case, one discussion" system; no individual or department may act arbitrarily. No naturalized citizens may participate in the investigation, trial, and execution stages of cases. Public announcement must involve protective measures such as approval by the Senate.

According to the opinions of some Senators, certain modifications were made to the subordination of the Ministry of Justice. After modification, the prosecutorial system was fully merged into the Ministry of Justice, establishing the Procuratorate; the Arbitration Tribunal was abolished, and the Supreme Court and subordinate court systems were placed directly under the Senate. The Arbitration Tribunal Investigation and Execution Bureau was merged with the Cheka, renamed the Senate Audit and Anti-Corruption Investigation and Execution Bureau, abbreviated as "Cheka." This bureau would be responsible for audit, anti-corruption, and the implementation of Senate disciplinary regulations, directly under the Senate.

The clause that Cabinet members are nominated by the Secretary of State was modified to allow free nomination by the Senate.

The main subject of the second day's discussion was the "Senator Marriage and Inheritance Law," which was also a matter with quite high demand in the Senate. It was already the fifth year after D-Day. Although most Senators were still in their prime, in this spacetime with much poorer medical conditions and shadows of war, production accidents, and political assassinations, the predictable lifespan of Senators would probably not be overly long.

Living a life, the most important thing is nothing more than continuing one's DNA. Senators were no exception to this. Now most Senators had children, some already possessing three or four. With only one Senator seat, how to arrange inheritance became a matter right before their eyes. The Old Zhang family maid event that caused such a huge uproar was essentially an inheritance issue as well.

In the view of Ma Jia and others in the Law Society, the Old Zhang family maid event fully reflected the conflict of concepts under different cultural backgrounds. The biological mothers of Senators' offspring were mostly from this spacetime—regardless of their poverty or wealth and cultural level, they inevitably carried many deep-rooted traditional concepts of this spacetime: such as the distinction between legitimate and concubine offspring, preference for sons over daughters... This could not be simply changed by study in maid schools or introducing modern living habits.

Ji Xin had once cooperated with the General Office to conduct a survey of Senator family conditions and had many contacts with Senators' Life Secretaries, understanding their thoughts quite well. In his view, Ms. Cheng's "Palace Intrigue" theory was not nonsense. Especially when a Senator had multiple Life Secretaries but no formal wife, this secret competition would be very intense. Some child injury accidents were not necessarily all accidental...

Life Secretaries were mostly from poor backgrounds, some even saved from the brink of death. Once becoming a Senator's pillow companion, it was tantamount to "a sparrow turning into a phoenix"—the material and spiritual difference was no less than clouds and mud. Regardless of how much true affection they held for the Senator, Life Secretaries would definitely strive to maintain and improve their status.

(End of Chapter)