dirty little politics

politics is perhaps one of my least favourite subjects, not because i'm against it in principle. in fact i think it is absolutely necessary because without politicians, we'd all become a bunch of barbarians and savages. rome would not have been the mighty republic without its senate, even though it's filled with aristocratic scumbags.


however the reason with my dissatisfaction with politics in general lies with the fact that politicians are all two-faced fucks (pardon my french). The taiwanese election just concluded on saturday. as expected Ma Ying-jeou from Kuomintang (KMT) beat Frank Hsieh of the ruling party.

in principle he's against Taiwan's independence, calling to boost economic ties and normalisation of cross-straights relations and what not. but isn't that what the notorious outgoing President Chen promised before he came into office? well, minus the anti-independence part. it turned into another story once he actually got his grubby meathooks on the steering wheel of the behemoth bureaucratic machine. like i've always maintained, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

there is simply no certainty in the politics business. it's as much about dirty deeds and power plays behind the scene as actual politicking as seen by the noble citizenry. and oh yea, i love watching the parliament in taiwan on tv. well not particularly the topics up for discussion - those are usually about as interesting as the life story of a sloth.

the main attraction is how they take democracy to the next level. i think chinese people as a race do not mix well with democracy, because in my opinion it's in our genes to be hot-headed and and get carried away with what we do. effective democracy demands a rational, well-informed citizenry, who possess their own opinions and judgments and are not easily swayed by nonsensical hearsays or become cantankerous mobsters at the slightest provocation. we (chinese people) either go for outright dictatorship ala ancient china, pseudo multi-party socialism ala present-day china, *self censored in fear of persecution* democracy in singapore, or steroid - laden - about - to - explode - in - your - face kinda democracy in taiwan.

the drama in the taiwanese parliament amazes me: people spitting on one another, throwing coffee mugs at each other, outright bar-brawl style kungfu fights breaking out at random, speakers screaming profanities at the top of their lungs into the microphone. and these are just some of the more common "happenings" to say the least. to an outside observer, it's nothing short of jaw-droppingly hilarious.

and interestingly, i actually read the news article about the taiwan election at al jazeera. it's not half bad really, somewhat a refreshing change from your everyday western observers' point of view.

read more: Taiwan's Opposition wins election