US President George Bush publicly congratulated Barack Obama on his historic victory and vowed “complete cooperation”.
Senator John McCain conceded defeat and said, “ I applaud him for it. ... offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, ... I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.
In contrast, what have we got in Hong Kong?
A Chief Executive who boasts that he favours people who support him and distances himself from people who hold different opinions. A Chief Executive who cannot tolerate even a mild challenge from a secondary school student on his performance on environmental issues. ...
A Legislative Council representative who told some members of his functional constituency that he was not going to represent their views because they did not vote for him. Another representative who slept through meetings and gave protesters the finger. ...
Political appointees who, beyond political connections, do not seem to be otherwise qualified. ...
With “politicians” of this caliber, indeed we might not really be ready for full scale democracy.
It looks depressing, but the US has had full democracy for several hundred years. Their politicians have had plenty of time to get used to winning... and losing.
ReplyDeleteWithout full democracy, our politicians will never learn to take losing gracefully. And we'll never get to vote out those childish and idiotic ones, and vote for those who are truly good.
Unless, of course, it is the nature of HK people that we like such childish and immature behavior, such as that illustrated by those aforementioned illustrators, who presumably were elected by popular vote. Then we truly may not be ready for full democracy.
In fact, we don't have many choices in HK. You never know when a CE may change faces. Mr. Tsang did look promising before.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, US voted Obama for a hope. Obama has not proved his abilities yet. McCain lost because US knows him and knows that he can't bring hope to the US people.
I guess the point is how candidates handle victory and defeat. I salute Obama and McCain for their pledge to unite to build a better country.
ReplyDeleteThis is in stark contrast to the HK Legco election in Sept. Defeated candidates were so bitter that they put the blame on other people, but did not reflect on how little they did in office in the past years when they were given a chance to serve.
Yeah. McCain said to his supporters: The failure is mine, not yours. I like that attitude.
ReplyDeletePoliticians claim to serve, not to rule over others.
Unfortunately, too often our politicians forget that. Perhaps many never believe that in the first place.