To class his comments as 'not nice' - 'bad manners', as the Malaysia Minister did, could not, in any way refute the truth he so clearly stated. Real progress, in any country, is impossible without the real cooperation of the people. To the extent that there are under currents of distress, tension, and any sense of injustice, the public life of the country is depressed and the real potential of the people is depleted. The real difficulty for Asian peoples, struggling towards a real democracy, is that Western democracies are so faulty that they provide no simple way forward. With rigid systems of flawed election processes and fixed government, reliance is routinely placed on demonstrations, of escalating violence, to attempt resolution of problems which governments want to ignore.
Genuine democracy is a refined process of reaching the best solutions for the people with calm.
How little effort has been put into cleansing our own system. Prime Minister Howard's sympathy for Malaysia's leadership in its 'difficult political situation' rings a little odd. Above all we, who pretend to democracy need to think about our responsibility to give a real example of how Asian peoples could proceed peacefully and successfully to the change they need. We, in the West, have failed them.