Democracy Doesn’t Matter to the Success of a Country – What’s Really Matter?
Dec 24th, 2010 by AhYap
Long long time ago before the galaxy exists, I already decided not to write about politics because politics is like religion, once you have a believe, it is hard to debate with you, argue with you, challenge you & change you…
[A kind note from AhYap: Grammar and Spelling don’t matter as well. What’s really matter is whether I can communicate the message to you. Sorry for the lame excuse to not write proper English, kekeke.]
Does democracy really matter? Is it an important factor to the success of a country? Well most people believe so. For me, I don’t. It doesn’t matter. I will explain why it doesn’t matter and tell you the 2 factors that are really matter. Please give me the time to explain before your “religious” political believes try to block your mind.
Democracy means every people has the right to choose whatever they want, which bring us to another magical word freedom. Freedom to choose, freedom to do…
Most people think democracy is good because they think it is fair. But is it? Nope, sorry. Democracy doesn’t equal to fair, democracy simply means the majority win. If the decision is always made by the majority, how can it be consider fair to the minority?
Example: A family with 4 children can vote someone to wash the dishes, clean the toilet, throw the garbage, massage the other kids… The 3 old brothers voted the youngest brother to do all the job. So everyday they vote the same, so everyday the small boy will be bullied to do everything for his elder brothers. Is this fair? Nope. But this is call democracy and this is the weakness of the system.
Now the second thing is, there is no such thing as 100% freedom. 100% freedom simply means 0 freedom. Why? If everyone can do whatever they want, they will definitely do something that you don’t want them to do. If a man can do anything they want, they can rob from you, they can rape your woman…
Freedom never exist, the closest thing to freedom is just half freedom. You can do this, but not this. Everyone can drive on the road but you need to obey the traffic lights. You can speed but there is speed limit. You can sing Karaoke loud but after please shut up after 12. So if there is no such thing as 100% freedom, democracy simply cannot be freedom. It cannot be something that never exist.
Now, the most scary part on why democracy sucks. If you give a man the freedom to choose, most people will choose a foolish or selfish choice. If you let your son choose whether he wants to play PS3 or study, what will he choose? If the government let the people decide whether they want to pay tax or not, which will they choose?
As written in the Bee and the Fly post (please read if you haven’t done so yet), most people on earth are flies. So if you give them a choice between honey and shit, what do they choose? SHIT!!! 
That’s why democracy doesn’t really work that well, at least it doesn’t matter at all when it comes to determine the success and prosperity of a country. So what’s really matter to a country? Two things – VISIONARY LEADERS + GRIP OF POWER.
The best examples are China and Singapore. China has 0 democracy but they have full grip of power and they have the most visionary leaders in the world. Singapore is a “democracy country” with an “emperor”. The old one was Lee Guan Yew and the new one is his son (passing throne?). And both of them are visionary leaders with full grip of power, they can execute all the plans without interruptions/distractions from the opponent. Their country prospers.
Malaysia? We used to have an emperor for 20 years who have full grip of power. Yet, he lack the first factor – VISION. We do have something call “Vision 2020” but that is better known as “Dream 2020” [Dream is something that you hope is real but is not].
A leader with full grip of power and yet not visionary can be very destructive to a country. Look at our own country, look at Myanmar who is lead by a junta (at least they don’t have snatchers and don’t need to live in iron grilled house and you can jog around the street 5am in the morning and leave your bag unattended in the airport while you got to the toilet), look at the pre-reformed Indonesia under Suharto. Indonesia now has visionary leaders with grip of power. India has one now. Malaysia?
There might be visionary leaders in Japan, but none of them have a firm grip of power. They change their prime minister more often than we change our car lubricant. Japan has had 0% interest rate for so many years because they still can’t find a way to boost their economy yet. Without power, no matter how visionary you are, you are useless. Abdullah Badawi might be more “visionary” than the other prime ministers but he didn’t have the power. So as Tengku Razaleigh.
Look at Thailand, a democracy country. It doesn’t matter. Instead, it is too democracy and too much freedom that everyone can wear red shirt and go BBQ your car on the street [freedom?!!]. As I say, too much freedom = no freedom. If everyone has the freedom to voice their dissatisfaction, there won’t be any freedom for others. There is no one that is 100% satisfy with anything. Look at Greece, the origin of democracy!!! What happened to them now?
We live in a world that everyone has their own thought. What you want is not what other people want. This has been discuss in my post why the world cannot be perfect with thousands of examples (please read). If A wants X and B wants Y, how do we decide? How to be fair? The democracy system try to address this by letting the majority win. But as I have said, how can this be fair to the minority? Can an Indian be the Prime Minister of Malaysia if everyone votes? Dream…
Not only that it is not fair and as inspire by the story of the bees and flies, most people are FLIES and they only want to eat SHIT. They make foolish and selfish decisions when they can choose. Ask everyone should we just have 4 workdays and 3 rest days. Or even better, 3 workdays and 4 rest days. Or maybe just don’t need to work and get pay by the government.
That’s why the brutal truth is that, you can’t let people choose too much for their own good. This didn’t sounds good to the ear but unfortunately it is the reality. Most people don’t have the discipline, they are still like kids. Be democracy and let your kid choose whether to go to school or go to play and see what he chooses.
Take Singapore as an example. This country has one of the strictest rule in the world with the most heavy punishment for all sort of offences. Littering is one of them. You can be fined thousands of dollars and asked to sweep the street wearing colorful T-Shirt. I am sure they have the less littering problem in the world BUT still everyday the government can collect thousand of fines from littering and every week you can still see people “volunteer” to clean the street for free. Why? Most people are stubborn. Most people cannot discipline themselves. You have to really kick their ass and let them feel the pain before they can wake up.
Democracy has failed miserably in many European countries. The government can hardly do a shit because the flies people are too strong. In America, most news are political news, a lot of time and effort are spent by the leaders to strengthened their grip of power, instead of how to make their country better. This is similar to all other democracy country where the leader need to focus their energy to fend off their opponents. [Just see how much effort and time is wasted by BN and PR to attack each other before they can do real things for the people? See what happened in Perak assembly?]
Why we can always hear story such as China can build a new hospital in 2 weeks, build hundreds miles of railroads in a year, execute a disaster rescue plan within hours … and yet why Malaysia need 6 years (guaranteed to be extended with over budget) to build only 60km MRT network from KL to Kajang?
Without the grip of power, nothing can be done. Politicians will need to spend their effort on protecting their rice bowl. China and Singapore doesn’t have such problem. They can focus on doing the right thing all the time. So they can have full efficiency and productivity.
With the grip of power, you need to be able to do the right thing. And this rely on the ability of the leaders. It may depend a lot on “luck” and Singapore and China has been very “lucky” so far. Leaders with grip of power and yet not visionary (or brutal) can be very destructive to their country and even the world. Look at North Korea. “Same” government system as China with strong grip of power and yet lacking visionary leaders.
Any suggestions for Malaysia? Sorry none. At first I got high hope when Najib took the seat. He can easily have the grip of power and at first he is able to do a lot of right things, but after the last announced budget…
How about our opposition party? They first need to worry about the power, then only then can do things. But who and how many can be the visionary leader(s)? haha. You think yourself.
Pakatan Rakyat announced their missions to be accomplished within 100 days if they win in the coming election. Please bear with me that I don’t really read newspaper so I only got a few points from glancing that day.
- Raise teacher salary by RM500 each
- Waived water bills
- Waived toll!!!
How interesting? Why they offer to do such things? Because they don’t even have the grip of power! They need to offer sweets to flies rakyat in exchange for the power. Of course all flies rakyat will be happy to get those shits sweets but those are not what visionary leaders will do!!!
Did Singapore waive toll fee? They build more tolls. If our leaders are visionary, they should focus on the traffic jam issue and the poor public transportation system. Not waiving toll! Why still need to “touch” then only can go? Why can only reload on so little places? Why no setup some side reload station upon the road so everyone from every entrance can reload instead of just somebody who enter at specific entrance?
I rode KTM for 3 times and it broke down twice. For the one severe broke down, I got free sauna for 1 hour inside a sealed cabin with no aircon and I can see my sweat dripped on the floor. If you already have traffic jam when you need to pay, what if you don’t need to pay? More cars will be on the road.
Did Singapore waive the water bills? They increase their tariffs. They spend so much money on creating their NEWater from shit water. Why? Because the government is visionary. They don’t want to rely on their neighbor for water but on their own. For us? We take things for granted. Free water will only create more water wastage.
Singapore did pay teacher very very fat salary but that is because they pick the best people to become the teacher! Can you increase someone teaching ability by simply paying them more? No, it has to start early with a lot of planning and choosing. There is no magic pill worth RM500 that can do that.
If you look at the history, most prosperous country are usually lead by strong king/emperors with strong grip of power. And to get that power, a lot of people have to die including killing their own brothers and sisters and anyone that is consider a treat. In the modern world, the treat is the opposition party.
Is there any hope for Malaysia? Let’s look at what rakyat we have right now.
1. Rakyat who simply don’t care
2. Rakyat who care but don’t know what to do or lazy to do (AhYap)
3. People who care and thought they know what to do but actually THEY DON’T KNOW!!! [Most of our politicians]
4. People who care and know what to do but don’t have the power to do. [Abdullah? Kuli?]
Unless the fifth type of rakyat appear, we might have some tiny hope.
5. People who care and know what to do and have the power to do.
Who? Who? Who? Masih tak ada lar bang.
And what did I do? I invest all my money in China (learn why) . And if our country become unsafe one day, I will migrate to Singapore. 
Am I selfish? You can say that. But this is a reality to me. There are so many things happening within the 27 million people in our country and how can you possibly control all of them? I once read an article that said why many people choose to leave Malaysia instead of asking the trouble makers to leave? Wow wow, tell me how to ask a snatcher to leave. Tell me how to ask a corrupted cop to leave. This is their heaven. If you can’t change them, change yourself. It is more easy to change one man (yourself) than to change 27 million people.
And how can 1 man AhYap changes something when there are only 9 people who LIKE AhYap.com in Facebook?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? Click the LIKE button now damn you!!!
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wah.. u scolded dee.. i better “like” u lorr.. wakakakaa..
Oh good girl, later share more “stolen” stuffs with you ya.
u promised ah.. ok.. bring on 30th..
Democracy means 少数服从多数. It stresses the importance of VOTING, if you cannot vote, in democracy context, you have no freedom.
I do believe democracy is the best system for a country to prosper. But why many countries under democracy cannot prosper, like Malaysia, Thailand. Allow me to be realistic here, it is because of the quality of the majority people who vote.
Y do I say so because, yes, many people are flies, but that flies % is higher in Malaysia, if you know what I mean. I bet that it is safe to say that there are more flies in Malaysia than in USA. That’s why USA prospers under democracy.
If the flies % are high until becoming the majority, then a democracy would be least effective there.
Let’s admit that China is nothing compare to USA, right now, we may be happy to see a rising China, because deep inside us, we are chinese, we want China to succeed. But it is a DREAM that China will one day surpass USA. Why?
We may be far from USA, but in reality, USA already conquer the world. Just look at the chip in your electronics, the website you surf most. Almost any modern standards are defined by someone in USA, like RFC, protocols, even Hollywood, you name it. I call these soft power of USA.
Ops I think I need to talk about democracy, why people love democracy? Why there is so much hype? Really, it is because that is the USA standard. The American says: we runs democracy, so should you. But is that a bad thing? No, why? Democracy has made USA successful, ruling the world with soft power. Why then democracy has not made us successful then? Back to my argument that, it is the quality of the voter.
If we have two teams of people competing in business, one team the average IQ is 150, the other average IQ is 50. They both practice sound democracy, elect leader or board director, so which team you think will win the market.
If you accuse me for saying some people is stupid, I am sorry. To say that Singapore is not democratic is not fair, it still let people vote. Did God give LKY to singapore to make it successful today? The PAP is a strong and quality party, only smart people are invited to join and lead the country. People vote for them. But I can’t say in the next election. But am I worried? No, Singapore will be fine after LKY, because the quality is there. Then will Singapore be very successful? No, because it is too small. There are more Chinese in Malaysia than in Singapore. Then will Malaysia better than Singapore? No, because democracy made other the boss there.
Let’s see Taiwan, it is democratic, it has HTC, ASUS, brands that is world dominating. South Korea, democratic, it has Samsung, LG. North? nothing. Most successful country are democratic, but don’t forget one thing, they also have quality voters.
Now, imagine a democratic China, it is fair to say that if Chinese transition to democracy peacefully, it will be 100 times more successful than it is now.
But let’s be real, it is still no where near USA.
Dunno why ppl always considered a country that allows their ppl to vote they are considered democratic. Case and point, any war torn african countries they do have voting system.. They more democratic compared to China ? If by argument that being more democratic equals success why most African who is relatively more democratic to China they are the pariahs ? I wonder if Choong can explain that ? I do share the same sentiment as ahyap
LOL..I damn like your last sentence!! luckily i’m one of the 9!! haha..
No offence, if anyone here in any attemp to discuss democracy, please conduct your reserch before being malicious.
This would make this subject more effective rather than revolving in “personal” presumption.
We’re living in a make believe world.
they said democracy is cool, so we follow nia la..
u can oppose..even u did, no one hear i guess..too soft…
Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.
if china goes democracy, it will be doom, since most china people hv low education (small town people etc etc) , and 黑社会/bully rules some places…u noe its just impossible for them , malaysia is like (lets win the election first, den do stuff)
I don’t think you actually understand Democracy. Perhaps you should read up on it a bit more. You’re from China, right? Didn’t they block the internet there?
Democratic countries are almost always fairer to its people than any other type. So, perhaps you should stop and think before posting such ridiculous stuff.
Why did you stop updating your blog? Your articles are very good.
Because………. good stuffs (like good movies) are rare. See how often Chow Sing Chi produce movie. lol. lame excuse for laziness…
Thailand has changed….why are we still waiting for? Go for Change
I totally agree with Choong’s comment.
Almost all successful/prosperous countries on earth practice democratic political system.
The problem is not the system, but the people in power who manipulated the system to their advantage, no free press to tell people the “TRUTH”, and a high proportion of misinformed voters who has mistaken ideas about Democracy.
I am not saying that democracy is a perfect political system, but as one famous saying pointed out that it is the only political system that tolarates criticisms.
interesting piece, but here’s the problem:
you are simplifying democracy into daily trivialities and your kid’s desire for fun. sorry, if you have any intelligence or sought to write a truly intelligent contemplative piece about the fallacies of democracy, you’ve obviously failed.
you are measuring the “success” of a nation based on their “productivity”. Just because a nation produces fantastic stuff in short periods of time, doesn’t make it a nation that a person, a human being can live in.
China may be able to build hospitals and launch disaster relief programmes at a fly. but have you been to rural China? have you been to places that are not the off-shore mega cities? China has a total of what? 6 mega developed cities that the world always harps about and then what? 90% of a nation that still lives in poverty and where corruption is over the top high and a currency that is still weak. and you call that a “success”? wow.
Let’s consider singapore, since your apathetic self reveres it so much. It’s an island. One Island. that is run by a dictatorship. sure. awesome everything in terms of infrastructure. but tell me something, if it’s such an awesome nation, why is it that you don’t see smiles on Singaporean faces?
you say in Europe the people have too much power and nothing gets done. Yet Europeans are proud of their own nations no matter how screwed up things may get. Why? because these are lands where human beings can feel like human beings, can have the pride to walk, stand and speak as human beings, can aspire to the things they want to and not worry about getting whacked because of a one-damn coloured T-shirt.
you speak of democracy as if its the end all. the perfect one-word solution to all of humanity’s problems but it’s not.
humanity will never achieve perfection. but perfection is something that humanity aspires to. and it is because we have this aspiration, we come up with ways to govern ourselves and our constant fallacies, with ideas like democracy, communism and socialism. each with their great flaws and each with their great benefits. why? Survival. because otherwise we’d be hacking each other to bits and pieces, and there won’t be a space for you to blog your half-baked rhetoric here. Because human survival is about the constant managing of our very human flaws.
you say that they are people who are criminals, who just sees wrongdoing as opportunities to exploit the system and that is true. Does a dictatorship as you suggest solve that problem? are there no crime in Myanmar and Singapore and China? This is why there are laws. but laws merely to govern human behaviour in as a collective. it does not and cannot govern human thought.
what democracy offers is the freedom of the mind, the freedom of ideas, the freedom of speech, the freedom for you to be able blog your own brand of rhetoric everyday without the fear that because of a law, men in uniforms will raid your home and take you away from your selfish move of migrating. the freedom for you to achieve the things you want without worrying that you might know be able to buy food or the many, many debts that will plague your entire life.
the democracy you describe is not democracy, it’s twisted anarchism.
a nation’s success is in how it treats it people, in how its people live. Not how fast can it produce a building.
typos: “the freedom for you to achieve the things you want without worrying that you might not be able to buy food or the many, many debts that will plague your entire life.
as for leaders. a true leader of man is revered by man. he may need to slaughter some folks along the way. but always, always, he is revered by the human beings who choose to follow him. i agree that a great leader is one with a firm grip of power and a vision.
yet, it is the means of acquiring that power that matters. democracy, communism, dictatorship, socialism, it’s all the same – the challenge to acquire power.
democracy offers a leader the chance to acquire power by acquiring the trust and support of the people he governs.
dictatorship offers a leader to use brute force and bullies every thing and every one in his way into submission.
tell me something, honestly, which would you prefer?
and if dictatorship is such a great deal, why have so many failed?
sure, the will of the majority means the minority suffers, but yet again, that’s why democracy is not an end all solution, but a constant managing system.
i don;t believe in democracy because it’s American. any nation that legalizes people to carry lethal weapons is screwed, no matter how free they claim to be.
i don’t believe in democracy because it’s “free”. it’s not. that’s why there are laws that protect you from human behaviour that will harm you physically.
i believe in democracy because it recognizes each of us as human beings. not cattle. not some generic word like “the people”. not “subjects”. but human beings. because it demands that each of us has a mind of his/her own with the right to express it and the right to be ridiculed and opposed or revered and admired by it. it’s not perfect. it’s just a better maintenance service.
and finally, just because most people can be dumb, doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a voice, even if it’s a voice you don’t agree with.
i don’t agree with what you say, but i will defend your right to speak to the death. that is democracy.
If one guy want to speak, the other guy don’t want to listen, democracy should protect whose rights?
We have the right to speak, just like we have the right to divorce. It is not about right or wrong, but sometimes it is just better we don’t do something. But freedom and democracy provide good excuses for us to overdo things.
Ultimately, it is not the freedom to speak that matter, it is the freedom of our mind. Can you let your mind stop speaking? Can you shut off the voice in your head?
Sir Winston Churchill, (Primer Minister UK, 1940-45 & 1951-55)
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
If you compare democracy and other forms on government on measures such as standards of living and quality of life and its effect on societies for the global population and extend that to throughout human civilisation, I think there is no comparison at all.
Demoracy allows you freedom, freedom to think, freedom to create a new economic model called capitalism. Without capitalism, there would be no industrial revolution, no rich countries, just poor ones with suffering humans.
Democracy is not perfect nor does it immediately equate to human properity but like Sir Winston said, it is still the best of all other forms tried so far with the results to prove it.
HAHAHA. The Philippines isn’t even among the countries you used as examples.. and I expected it not to be.
But FERDINAND MARCOS should’ve been an example of a VISIONARY LEADER with FIRM GRIP. Too bad Filipinos kicked him out of office and ever since then we sucked(back then we were only 2nd to Japan, im not sure how many asians are aware of that fact nowadays.)
I went for a trip last week and met some Filipinos and they told me the old time where they are actually better than Japan. They also told me that 1 USD is equal to 1 Peso at that time. Now it is 1 USD to 45 peso. That’s just a few decades.
Visionary Leader + Firm Grip on Power = Absolute Leader
Power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts absolutely …
Throughout history, there are numerous “great” leaders that started off being visionary and saviors to their nations but ultimately left the world worst.
Example? Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Tojo, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Mugabe, etc. The list is too long to end.
9 out of 10 so-called leaders overstayed in their position.
It is rare for a leader to leave at their peak after doing a good job and passing their rein to a capable successor. The only person I can think of that did this well is Lee Kuan Yew. Even Winston Churchill is voted out of office after WW2 ended because the British don’t believe he can be a good peacetime leader.
The question is that, when a nation is stuck with a leader that is under-performing or worse, what are the options available ?
In democracies, it’s no sweat, just vote the guy out and replace it with a substitute from the opposition. In others, you need an armed revolution to do this, they won’t go easily without a fight. Look at Yemen, Algeria etc.
The people is the employer of the country (hey, we are the ones paying the taxes anyway). How would you feel if you are paying for an employee that is not just under-performing but making life difficult for you ? Worse part is, you can’t get rid of the guy, how would you feel ?
Democracy is not perfect, but so far, still way better than communism, dictatorship or absolute monarchies.
My two cents.
Do you know that the whole of China was once a democratic nation(中华民国·） before it failed and take over by Communist . See Guo ming dang ! they left mainland in 1949 with thousand sacks of $$ to taiwan …and left shits to the mainland for the communist party!
but fortunately they can’t take all the talents people .
China now has a ‘modified’ capitalist economic , and a single-party political style (just Like SINGAPORE) … although no freedom of speech ..(similar to Singapore) but at least you can travel freely ..however China communist modal already failed in the 1980s . Now its another kind of political ideology .
Its simple that why China can’t fit democracy ! .In the past, China all the way was ruled by a emperor for almost 5000 yrs .. do you know what will happen if it was suddenly transformed to a ‘democratic nation ‘ it proven to be chaotic just like the 民国 time ,where corruption is worst than the qing dynasty ! warlord everywhere and snatching lands ，poor people become worst .
Hi all, my personal 2 cents worth of thought. I don’t think there’s any perfect system right now in our world that will serve us best. We have so many different thoughts, ideas, beliefs and etc. Maybe in a thousand years, or ten thousand years… there will be one. But not now. Humanity is so young right now and we have such a long way to go. We’ll definitely not be able to witness this with our short life spans but I think we can try to contribute towards our future generations. Leave a thought behind, leave a remark behind, leave a message behind. Do not make decisions and do not leave criticisms. And perhaps, with some luck, humanity’s future will be greater then. This is my only reason for adding to this blog.
Another 2 cents more:
1) Perhaps a Country may be better governed / managed by a “small group” rather than a single person (say, a Prime Minister), assuming that the PM has the ulitmate say in all decision makings. A group of 3 nominated “premiers”, for example ?
2) Every system has it’s benefits and setbacks, and this appplies to Democracy, Communism, Dictatorship or anything else. Perhaps someone can consider dissecting all of this and come up with something more universal (for now). As humans, we need to evolve to survive but as a Community and Society, we will also need our system to evolve just the same.
3) Create a GLOBAL platform for everyone to voice their ideas and suggestions without fear of reprimand from any party. Record and maintain these inputs, and publish; and allow access to any one for any purposes. Humanity needs a way to consolidate all their thoughts for creation of a better goodness.
Credit to AhYap for stiring up some action here. A forward society is a thinking society. Keep it up AhYap.
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