Politics

I was having a discussion about politics the other day (What? A serious conversation?!)

On Nov 18, HK held a District Council election. The big news was that the Democratic party took a pretty bad hit, losing in most of their constituencies. Unfortunately, they didn't lose in my district.

It's not that I have a problem with democracy, but I simply thought that the Democratic council candidate in my district was too focused on politics and not enough on the real issues of the district. To me, a district councilor should be more concerned about issues such as the environment, welfare, transportation conditions, public safety, etc. rather than party issues such as universal suffrage (which was basically the sole selling point of his platitude).

Anyways, those of you how know me know that I'm not an enthusiastic proponent of democracy. Do I think that people shouldn't be allowed to vote? Of course not. I have not qualms with the concept of democracy, but therein lies the problem: it's a CONCEPT. In theory, democracy is a wonderful idea, but like so many other concepts, theory and reality seldom match. In a real world situation, "Majority rules" often leads to less than ideal results.

For example, suppose that a family of 5 (2 parents, 3 small children) was given the following issue to vote on: Should the family eat vegetables and other healthy choices, or candy, popcorn and soda for all their meals? Chances are, the vote would come in 3 to 2 in favor of the junk food. And why? Because the children lacked the ability to make an educated decision on the matter.

And so it is with most societies. This probably sounds elitist, but I argue that a substantial part of the voting community is ill-equipped to make decisions that will influence the entire community *. Democracy needs to work under conditions where everyone involved can make an educated vote, rather than being told who and what to vote for. The voters need to be able to weigh the good and bad repercussions of their decisions instead of voting based rash and skin-deep reactions (something I has already played heavily in the Legislative Council election, aka The Battle of Mrs. Ip vs. Mrs. Chan...)

* The fact that Mr. Leung Kok Hung ("Long Hair") is a legislative councilor is nothing short of irrational voting. Honestly, what constructive action has he done since taking office?