The Democratic Rookie

Last weekend was Taiwan's Presidential Election as well as legislation-maker elections, which is equivalent to congress and senate elections. It's a big deal, but none too unfamiliar to Taiwanese. Taiwan has long gotten used to this process of emotional seasons where beliefs, opinions, rumors, framing, violence, agreement and disagreement happen all at the same time. Strangely speaking, this was my first time at the voting booth.

Since I've always been away, I never made it to a single voting until this year. For a time, Taiwan's voting turn out was low because people don't see change happening, because people don't find the candidates worth voting for. "They don't deserve my vote!", many said. What happened was, bad politicians get their way and continue to get elected, and those who complained continued to complain.

This year, as much as 80% turned out to cast their votes. For good or bad reasons, the majority felt the need to voice themselves.

Politics is a touchy thing. It consists of only subjective opinions. No matter how one reasons his or her point of view, it will always be personal. However when millions of personal opinions come together, the result becomes objective.

Many still have much dislike towards "politics", like as if "politics" is a thing that they can avoid. Politics is every where. It's in the office, in your home, between your friends, between your neighbours, and between your pets. Politics is the struggle for structural relationships, how resources is distributed and how the system is defined. To "dislike" politics doesn't make sense, because that means one willingly becomes a victim of the system because he/she refuses to participate in it.

Another common reaction towards politics is, avoid discussing it at all cost!

Most Taiwanese are rather opinionated about who they vote for. It's a known fact that taxi drivers love to share their views. There have been cases where the passenger are told to get off the car because the driver and passenger couldn't agree with each other. There have also been cases of divorce because of political ideology differences. Sounds rather silly? Yes it is. So people basically have learnt to avoid talking about it altogether. What happens then, is the media became the only source of voice and opinion. Talk shows invite groups of "political talkers" to "talk", like as if they are experts you ought to get your opinions from. People, however, stopped talking about their own opinions, and a strange gap is formed between individuals, guessing what each other really thinks.

When I was in grad school, we adopted a very harsh form of "self-improvement". Our critic sessions have no hold backs. We present our hard work before our peers and receive harsh critics. We questioned, dissect, challenge, tear apart and bash the concept that the artist/designer worked so hard to shape. We even disagreed among ourselves who were judging the piece. At the end of the day, there is no hard feeling because we all know that we spoke from our hearts and there was only one thing on everyone's mind, which is we want the best for our friends.

So why can't we do the same for our political opinions? Why can't we all realize that no matter what the individual thinks, it's all for the country's good? What freedom do we have if we can't even speak from our hearts among ourselves?

I am no political activist and I will probably never come close to participate in political event, however I will continue to vote, because I am in politics, I don't want to be a victim, and voting is the single most effective and direct way to make politicians responsible for their actions and words.

To me, democracy is mature only when every one feels comfortable to openly talk about their beliefs responsibly. We are not there yet.