That the dispute in the village of Wukan in coastal Guangdong seems to be close to a peaceful ending is a blessing to all parties concerned.

The transaction and development project involving the land seizures that provoked the villagers' protests has been suspended and a corruption probe is under way, and the two local village officials involved have been dismissed and are under investigation.

With panels of negotiators and investigators dispatched to the village by the provincial authorities and their vow to use the "utmost resolution, utmost sincerity, and their utmost efforts" to address the villagers' reasonable petitions, we are optimistic that the conclusion to this dispute will be a generally satisfactory one.

But the protests in Wukan should never have escalated to the level they did. The villagers' complaints about illicit land seizures and inadequate compensation could - and should - have been resolved within the framework of the law, and this could have been achieved without too much trouble had the grassroots officials been truly committed to justice and responded fairly to the initial protests back in June.

Wukan not only highlights one of the frequent flashpoints bedeviling people-government relations, it also epitomizes the problems at a deeper level.

As Wang Yang, the Communist Party of China secretary of Guangdong province, pointed out the dispute was "accidental" but also "inevitable". This is because the village leaders acted against the will of their constituencies.

As Wang rightly said: "This is the result of conflicts that accumulated over a long time in the course of economic and social development."

The controversial land seizures only fanned the flames of the villagers' discontent, which was already smoldering over the way community affairs were managed.

Under current laws, rural communities are managed by villagers' committees, which are the formal organizations for grassroots self-governance. These committees are formed in general elections in which all local residents participate, and they operate under agreed rules. Many village level disputes arise because the due procedure is not followed in the formulation of such committees, or because there is a lack of transparency and public participation in the decision-making processes. Sometimes both.

Stability in rural communities will only be maintained if the interests of local residents are guaranteed, and this will only be achieved by honoring the law's promise of their participation in grassroots governance.

More often than not, stability-minded local administrators tend to resort to confrontational approaches when dealing with residents' expressing any disagreement. Yet, as has been evident before, this tends to fuel the dispute rather than pour oil on troubled waters.

The value of Wukan is that it clearly illustrates the sharp contrast between the outcome when lower-level officials attempted to suppress the villagers' protests - they turned violent - and the outcome when the provincial authorities heeded the villagers' complaints - the once explosive tensions dispersed overnight.

The ending of the Wukan story shows the power of reason in preserving stability.

(China Daily 12/23/2011 page8)