【明報專訊】ONE cannot but lament what has happened in Wukan, a village in Lufeng, Guangdong. Five years ago, Wukan residents staged a weiquan (protect rights) fight in an attempt to recover collective land sold. People were then at daggers drawn, but the affair ended in peace because the Guangdong authorities used soft tactics to deal with it. That led to the direct election of the members of the village's Party committee by its residents. What happened there was once described as a typical case of "village grassroots democracy". Five years after that, Wukan residents had not recovered their land yet. They therefore planned to stage another weiquan fight. But the authorities took tough measures in response. They sent thousands of police officers to the village and had Wukan Party secretary Lin Zulian arrested, allegedly for taking bribes. Things are exactly as they were five years ago when the authorities intended to nip their fight in the bud.