Yes, nothing Man-made will ever be perfect - Democracy or otherwise.earthfriendly wrote:Well, it is imperfection within the system that allows incident like Guantanamo Bay to happen. And there was wide spread public discourse on it. Democracy doing its job. Democracy at work.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/201 ... eport-says
Compare this to govt censorships in China and SG. The hypocrisy that only the govt can have opionions. Power is meant to be shared (with the public). A democratic concept. Not meant to be hoarded by a single group / govt / man .
Mistakes will be made. Lessons learned and accidents do happened.
The Guantanamo Bay "incident" is one good e.g when Democracy should be doing the work of corrective this mistake.
So my curiosity brought me to another realisation about this Camp - it is still open!
I am shocked. Why is it still running after Obama made so much promise during his pres election in 2008 ? Then I found this :
Guantánamo Bay lawyers call bluff on Obama's promise to close prison
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... es-laywers
President Obama promised to close the prison years ago. He formed the PRB and all individual countries agreed to receive their nationals. But months and months have passed, the number of people who have been released through the PRB can be counted on two hands. It’s so incredibly slow. How long will it take for me?
I ask the American people to search for the truth, for the truth of the continuous existence of the prison at Guantánamo. I ask the American people, who claim to protect human rights, to practice what they preach – for where is equality and justice and democracy?”
Rabbani, a Karachi taxi driver, has been in Guantánamo for more than 11 years .
I am okay with an imperfect Man-made system of politics, law and punishment.
But why keep a known innocent individual locked up and subjected to torture in 21st century America for over a decade ? I am confused.
According to the FP article which you shared earlier (http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/19/an- ... ao-ziyang/), the Author mentioned "the four volumes .... offer an opportunity to imagine what might have been, had he not been purged in 1989. " The key word is "imagine". Never did the Author claimed Zhao had "mentioned" anything vaguely about his "learning experience". In fact, as I mentioned before, the words "imagine", "if", "might" are often coin"ed. IMHO, hardly an authoritative piece.earthfriendly wrote: SG (I tend to lump SG govt closer to China then a western democratic model) using the new law to tighten their grip. And when journalists ask for clarifications from gahment, difficult to get a response from gahment. They have no interest in maintaining the law that they themselves created? Only care to use it as a scare tactic to silence public debate. To scare those who are easily scared. The wise ones can spot their paper thin persona from a mile away.
Just like Zhao Ziyang mentioned that he did not learn much during his time with the CCP. Oooooooops, another weakness exposed by an insider. We can't have that, can we? Better quickly come up with a law and make sure he is swiftly dealt with. USA is founded on principle, one of which is democracy and giving a voice to the individuals. What kind of principle binds the CCP and the citizenry of China? To use the full weight of the law (created by themselves, the party members) and force to silence the critics? Such a paper thin organization. An empty shell.
https://www.byline.com/column/23/article/1213
Also Il do not understand you now dwell on lumping SG & CN together.
Don't know why you do that - Is this a something to do with cultural thing ?