Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A note of brief discussion with the Taiwanese friends on Democracy

I was fetching the guys, 2 of them, Bruce and Andrew. Whereas the ladies are on another car.

When traveling to the last destination of the night, i.e. 4th Jan 2008, the three of us started our conversation on Democracy and how we look at it.

Bruce started by asking what is the general sentiment of us, the Chinese in particular, that our country's leaders are mostly other races, i.e. ethnic Malay.

I told him this is probably most non-Malay feel in this country. However, I in turn asking him that in Taiwan, almost all are the same race, but the elected then President, Chen Shui-Bian (陈水扁) abandoned his people, rather those who voted him in as the President, and become the most corrupted President in the Taiwan history.

What I was trying to say is that even we have leaders of the same race, it does not guarantee that the people's interested will be protected.

I have further illustrated that given the example of MCA (Malaysia Chinese Association), the 2nd largest ruling coalition component party, often resorted to appealing and begging for restoring the Chinese's rights as claimed by themselves, than be the equal partner of the ruling coalition. However, I personally do not see how MCA successfully defended the Chinese's rights in this country.

Thus, my point is: Whether the leader speaks your mother tongue, having the same skin color, or same faith does not make them a better leader for a given community.

A leader, as of my definition, should be a lead person who will protect and uphold everyone's rights in the country. Those who have been waiving kris (Malay sword); calling others "immigrants"; begging for others to give what is entitled for; are nothing but pure political animal. These are not the leaders that a country should have. These leaders will eventually torn the country apart, vacuum all wealth for their personal gains, and leave rubble behind to the rest of us.

As an ordinary people on the street, I can only dream of that one fine day, the political animals extinct , and real politicians raised to be the defendant of the people.

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