HK Democracy or Not

It bothers me a bit these few days about the by-election in HK. I know that I cannot change people's views but it bothers me to the extent that I should state a few, hopefully, objective points.

As we examine the history of China and the current situation in Asia, there are a few interesting points to note:

• China was ruled by dictatorship dynasty after dynasty. There were emperors that were good and there were bad ones. There are still many of them, to date, considered to have done a lot of good for the people.
• India has democracy. However, India is still very poor. Yes, it has achieved a lot economically but so has today's China. Democracy hasn't brought majority of people out of poverty because of the intrinsic cultural and social structure.
• Taiwan has democracy but corruption persist or may have even gone worse. People are crying out for better economic management by the elected government.
• Singapore is ruled under dictatorship. It is a prosperous country. Its low level of corruption and clean government is what a lot of democratic or non-democratic countries admire to have. Mr Lee Kwan Yew is considered one of the best leaders in world history. I am sure that if he thought democracy was the best thing for Singapore at the time, he would have implemented it in Singapore from day 1.
• Australia has democracy. It is a pretty decent country but people are still condemning the elected government not doing a good job.

Those points bring me to think that we get good and bad government under various types of systems. Dictatorship is not the ultimate answer and neither is democracy for HK. In fact, I don't think anyone knows the answer if we truly ask ourselves.

We are all steered by our ideological thinking that is shaped by own view, upbringing and people around us. No matter what, in such a discussion, various groups need to work together. We all need to abandon the "all or nothing" approach. The HK government has admitted that the current system is not perfect and is willing to work with different groups. Let's not insist that democracy is perfect.

Yes, it is a long road and people are getting tired, frustrated and angry. Let's persist on that road working with the government to ensure that each (small) step is in the right direction. HK cannot afford to get it wrong when it is already facing fierce competitions from Shanghai, for example.

If HK has democracy today with the composition of the current MPs, I very much doubt if the "government" is able to function well. It is not the system that determines the success of a government, it is the people that are in there.

Democracy to me is the "essential evil" in a capitalist world. I don't know what works best for HK. My gut feeling tells me that the level of maturity is not there for full democracy today. The government and the various political groups need to work out what's the place blueprint of democracy that fits HK's unique cultural and social fabric.

If yelling will help, I will. If throwing banana peels will help, I will too. Instead, I believe that God is the ultimate ruler in the world. I resort to yelling to God in my pleas to Him through my prayers and ask Him to have His will be done in HK.

I will leave it at that.