John B. Parisutham
Apr 10, 20132 min
Democracy was the topic we learned about during our lecture class of Week 7. Indeed, it is an area of discussion which takes a lot of time, but we had the chance to share our ideas about what is happening around the world. Dr. Hamid asked us to reflect on two questions: “What is wrong with today’s democracy?” and “Are there any possible better alternatives?”
Honestly speaking, I don’t think someone would say that everything is ‘right’ with today’s democracy! In my opinion, considering that everything which is exaggerated is bad, democracy as a belief in freedom and equality has been ‘misinterpreted’ and not applied as it should be in many democratic countries.
If we look at one side, we should know that not all things go perfectly as they are promised by the politicians. And in this aspect, knowing that corruption as a dishonest behavior has overflowed in many countries, democracy as a system has been badly affected. So, as we are in this point, we are also answering the second question regarding to whether there can be possible better alternatives. If people raise their voice and do not hesitate to speak out their rights, then a bottom-up intervention could definitely work! At the same time, many other ‘misbehaviors’ from the political and governing side would be minimized. Furthermore, democracy would function and would have been completely applied in the society.
Besides discussing about democracy, we were honored to have a guest delivering a talk during our lecture. He was Mr. Hood, and he discussed about Orang Asli. It was so beautiful to hear about their story! Besides that, I have personally visited that place when doing a project for SIFE. I was so surprised