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(CNN) -- On the road to democracy, Myanmar has sputtered, and it's time to move forward, said President Obama from the porch of an infamously symbolic home in the country's largest city.

Aung San Suu Kyi had been under house arrest there for 15 years for her democracy activism. But on Friday, now a parliamentarian, she stood side by side with Obama, her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

She consoled her compatriots that democracy does not come easy and difficulties don't have to be permanent.

He praised democratic progress, particularly an increase in freedom of the press, but then laid his finger in the wounds left by the remnants of military dictatorship and ongoing ethnic tension.

Military dominance

Reform is not complete and can still be reversed, Obama said.

Military rule has officially ended in Myanmar, which democracy activists call Burma, and the country's first multiparty national elections in 2012, the same year that Obama became the first sitting U.S. President to visit the country.

There was much fanfare back then about Myanmar's move towards democracy.

But the military still has a major hold on parliament, and Obama called for Myanmar to move to a strictly civilian government.

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President Obama tells Myanmar to move forward on democracy

Democracy, like human development, is something that matters. Furthermore, democracy is not an either-or, black-or-white, but has degrees, of greater or lesser magnitude. In other words, it can be measured by an index, just as human development is measured by the Human Development Index (see Lagging behind in Southeast Asia, Opinion, 10/25/2014).

Since 2006, the Economic Intelligence Unit (www.eiu.com), an independent business firm within the Economist group, has been making a Democracy Indexbeing branded, it is capitalizedspecifically for its cross-country analysis. This Index is published for 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The latest report has scores for 167 countries, including 10 from Southeast Asia.

The Democracy Index is based on answers to a questionnaire of 60 items about conditions in a country, mostly answered by country specialists, but with up to 12 items drawn from existing national surveys. The 60 items have five categories, allowing five category-indexes, which are averaged, without weights, into an overall index. The indexes are scored from 0 to 10democracy is complete at 10, and nonexistent at 0.

The Democracy Index classifies countries with a score of 8 or more as Full Democracies. Those with scores from 6.0 to 7.9 are termed Flawed Democracies. Those with scores from 4.0 to 5.9 are Hybrid Regimes, and those below 4.0 are Authoritarian Regimes. Country No. 1 is Norway (9.93), and country No. 167 is North Korea (1.08), as of 2012.

Democracy in Southeast Asia. Based on the Democracy Index, the quality of democracy in Southeast Asia differs widely, but no country is a Full Democracy. The highest score is that of Timor Leste (7.16)which declared its independence from Portugal in 1975, was annexed by Indonesia in 1976, and regained its independence only in 2002.

Southeast Asia has five so-called Flawed Democracies, namely Timor Leste (7.16), Indonesia (6.76), Thailand (6.55), Malaysia (6.41), and the Philippines (6.30). It has two Hybrid Regimes, namely Singapore (5.88) and Cambodia (4.96). And it has three Authoritarian Regimes: Vietnam (2.89), Myanmar or Burma (2.35), and Lao PDR (2.32). (Brunei is not indexed, thus far.)

The world rankings in Southeast Asia, according to the Democracy Index, are: 43. Timor Leste, 53. Indonesia, 58. Thailand, 64. Malaysia, 69. Philippines, 81. Singapore, 100. Cambodia, 144. Vietnam, 155. Myanmar, and 156. Lao PDR.

Components of the index. The Democracy Indexs five categories are as follows (with the number of question-items per category in parentheses):

1. electoral process and pluralism (12),

2. functioning of government (14), 3. political participation (9), 4. political culture (8), and

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The Democracy Index

HONG KONG Twenty-one-year-old student Choi doesnt tell his parents when he heads off to join the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Its simply not worth the aggravation.

We had a few discussions, but it never ended well, he said, using only one name to avoid more trouble with his family. We avoid talking about it now. Lots of my friends have a bad situation at home as well."

These days the Chinese territory of Hong Kong seems full of divisions. There is a generational divide between young people who support the protests and older people who dont; there are tensions between Hong Kong and the government of China and between the peoples of Hong Kong and mainland China. There are even divisions between protesters about the best way forward.

Police have used tear gas and pepper spray on the protesters, who have responded with abuse and insults thrown back at the police over the barricades.

Groups of old men turn up at the protest sites and taunt the students as traitors who are fulfilling a Western agenda to bring China down; pro-democracy protesters jeer at their opponents as agents of the Beijing government, betraying Hong Kongs unique values and Cantonese-speaking identity.

This once apolitical enclave has suddenly become a polarized place, and not everybody is comfortable with the change.

I have lived in Hong Kong since 1948 and I cant remember a single issue that has so divided society, said Anson Chan, the 74-year old former chief secretary of the territory who has joined those calling for democracy. Even within my family there are such strongly held views.

There is growing talk that Hong Kong police will soon move in to clear the protest sites. But whenever and however the protests end, the legacy of polarization, recrimination and retaliation is likely to endure far longer.

Public relations director Davis Man laments that there is little room left for people in the middle, who he says now get pressure from both sides.

Man says he appreciates the students for fighting for what they believe in, but he argues that the occupation has gone on too long. Leaders on both sides, he says, seem to have little interest in cooling down the situation.

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Hong Kong wrestles with growing polarization

Invoking the United States' own messy path to democracy, President Obama urged leaders here Thursday to right a young democracy veering off course and taking with it a once-touted U.S. foreign policy success in Asia.

Faltering government reforms and raging violence against ethnic minorities have led Obama and U.S. officials to downgrade their praise for Myanmar, which recently began to emerge from years of totalitarian rule and was quickly embraced by the Obama administration. In 2012, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit here.

But on his second trip, pegged to a regional summit this week, he found himself in the awkward position of condemning human rights violations while cheering the quasi-military government's improvements.

Obama said he spoke to parliamentary leaders about protecting minority rights and preventing the erosion of democracy.

"In the United States, we've had to wrestle with many of these questions as well, both in our founding and over the course of our democracy," Obama said. "But the work is not yet done, and the goal of the United States here is to be a strong partner in the process. Like every good friend, we will praise what works. There will be times where we offer constructive criticism about a lack of progress in certain areas or where reform efforts have stalled."

That prod-and-praise balancing act was echoed in Obama's itinerary for this second of a three-leg trip that began in China and will end in Australia. After first attending a series of summit meetings in this gleaming capital city, built in just 10 years to house the new Myanmar government, the president traveled Thursday to a more storied city: Yangon, symbolic home of the opposition party, whose leaders are growing impatient with Obama's embrace of the sitting government.

Among those who have urged Obama to take a harder line with the government of President Thein Sein is Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate whose years of house arrest made her the international face of the independence movement. Obama met with Suu Kyi at length at her home in 2012, and in a speech to students placed himself on Myanmar's road to democracy.

"When I took office as president, I sent a message to those governments who ruled by fear. I said, in my inauguration address, 'We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.' And over the last year and a half, a dramatic transition has begun," Obama told students then. "So today, I have come to keep my promise, and extend the hand of friendship."

Two years later, the White House does not dispute that there is far less to celebrate. Myanmar's government has continued to be swayed by military influence. And a conflict in Rakhine state between the Buddhist majority and a Muslim minority, known as the Rohingya, has resulted in thousands of Muslims being killed or sent to detainment camps, under the eye of a government rife with prejudice.

Some 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya, are displaced and living in camps, dependent on international aid, according to Human Rights Watch estimates. The group accuses the government of not prosecuting those responsible for what it calls a rash of "ethnic cleansing" in Rohingya communities two years ago.

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Obama urges Myanmar to return to the path of democracy

Sinn Fin can talk the talk about democracy but are willing to "throw it aside" when it suits their political needs, the Taoiseach said as the row rumbled on over Thursdays Dil sit-in which brought parliamentary business to a halt.

Speaking in New York, Enda Kenny said it was utterly reprehensible for Sinn Fin leader Gerry Adams to cast aspersions about the freedom of the press to write their stories.

Responding to comments by Mr Adams about a newspaper editor being held at gun-point, which have been criticised by the National Union of Journalists, Mr Kenny said: To give any threat, implied or otherwise, I find is utterly reprehensible and disgraceful.

Sometimes I dont like what the press might say about me, and I suppose every politician would be the same.

But a fundamental tenet of our democracy is freedom of expression and the capacity of the press, and those who work in the press, to do their job.

Sinn Fin is considering proposing a motion of no confidence in Ceann Comhairle Sen Barrett, whom the party accused of acting as a shield against scrutiny of Government.

During Thursdays leaders questions, Mr Barrett ruled Sinn Fin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald out of order and called a vote to suspend her.

She had been questioning Tnaiste Joan Burton on whether social welfare payments would be deducted for those who did not pay water charges, and refused to sit down at the Ceann Comhairles request.

The party staged a four-hour sit-in before coming out to the Dil plinth, where Mr Adams told the media the basic tenet of parliamentary democracy holding the Government to account does not function in the Dil.

The incident has been described as a stunt to divert attention from Sinn Fins treatment of Belfast rape victim Maria Cahill, whose case was the subject of a Dil debate on Wednesday.

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Enda Kenny: Sinn Fin throwing aside democracy