Over more than a decade of living in and reporting on East Asia, I've seen the quest for democracy repeatedly clash with dictatorship, heard the claim over and over again that Asian values and views of democracy are just plain different from those of the West. Strangely enough, it's usually the dictators or their supporters who proclaim such views. My government knows best. Given a chance, East Asians have repeatedly shown what they want. Taiwanese, who until 1986 lived under martial law, have embraced democracy with gleeful passion.
Rallies are packed, loud and exuberant.
Before each election the streets are plastered with campaign posters. Candidates are out in the street markets, at the factories, in the countryside, shaking hands and listening to what people want. Try telling any of these people that democracy isn't an Asian value. But the transition from dictatorship to democracy is rarely smooth. Thailand, after a long history of military coups, was well on its way down the democratic path.