07/15/05

Dear all Lao compatriots,

To Malayrak and Nina:

I am happy to share my thoughts with all of you as always.

Demos:  people: xt-k-qo s]n ,;o-qo

Kratos:    Rule; Authority;   veokf  it[v[

dkoxqd7v'D

vtmuxtw8p%  G 7;k,gxao.spj

Democracy:  it[v[ xt-kmuxtw8p%   G

c,joit[v[dkoxqd7v'-nj'veokfl6'

l5f0No16j.o,n0v'xt-k-qoD

vk9ko3,mtokwfhg;Qk,k7q[lq,7;o

c]h; gxaorklk]k;g4u' !# [qf  c]t

gvNvpd=wfhl]6[8k,7;k,g0Qk.9

0v'8qogv' ;jk G xt-k-qo ma,,tfk lj;o.spj

s]n oadxqd7v' -Ao .fM  9tc,jo elite or in different levels, in

any institutions, private organizations, government..etc..

*****

lt[kpfugvNvp9=kxkmv'c]tm5dMmjko

Euay Champathong, you put it well about the definition and concept of democracy. Better yet, you even introduce the concept of Dhamma  ma,,kmuxtw8p%  which the West itself even needs it. What a forward-thinking indeed! Now, if you don't mind, I would like to add  two more points to make the discussion more interesting and, hopefully, engaging. First, I will make no bones that democracy is the best governing system available as of now. Still, not a few people think democracy is "of the people, by the people and for the people". Yes, it may be close to that ideal but it is somewhat misleading. In fact, democracy is the rule of the majority which, in some cases, could easily be the tyranny of the majority. Second, whenever we talk about democracy, we tend to think that it exists in a vacuum which is not the case at all. In fact, here is an array of factors that needs to be taken into consideration. To make it concrete, let's talk about Laos.

Here are some questions to ponder:
1/ Will it ever work in Laos? Can we say that Laos prior to 1973 was a democratic state? If so, how did the experiment go?
2/ Given the country history, the economy of the country and the education of the people, will democracy make a difference in the governance of the country now?
3/ The West has a strong foundation of democracy which takes centuries to build on, do we think we can copy their democracy and implant in Laos overnight?

Just something to share from one of the Lao intellectuals.

]k;gdqjk
p.s. I collected a thread of discussion about panyason xaopk-qo especially panyason Lao which, touched here and there on the discussion of democracy as applied in Laos. Among the participants were Thanouxay - the present spokesperson of the current regime. The link is at:
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/panya05/panyason.htm
*****