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A democracy's very resilience stems from the fact that you can celebrate opinions you don't agree with. This clearly highlights the value of diversity - to be willing to accept ideas that one doesn't necessarily agree with.

What must be emphasized is that the real value of opinion is the absolute right to be wrong and be wrong without fear and where there is no vindictiveness or its threat doesn't exist.

My previous column, "Will anything change with the new prime minister" got some positive comments like how this was worth a larger discourse, how it could change the country for the positive and how an action agenda needs to be set to get the idea in motion.

What, though, came as a surprise were the not so positive comments - or, I should say, the near threats or direct threats from the bureaucracy to refrain from such articles because they seemed to believe that opinions and ideas are dangerous; that they can lead to the downfall of the world's largest democracy.

This compels us to look afresh at the true meaning of democracy. At the core is free speech - the right to an opinion, the right to disseminate the opinion and the right to be heard. One thing, though, is definitively true: that no curtailment of ideas can happen or should happen.

Quite remarkably, we don't have to agree with each other's ideas, thoughts or writings. We should be fight to protect the right to tell, suggest, criticize and debate. Thus, we can clearly state that the entrenched power of democracy is its free speech and the ability of the people to self-correct whenever and wherever required.

At times one finds the dichotomy difficult to fathom and understand. On the one hand, we proudly suggest we are the world's largest democracy with the largest number of people voting. But we also have numerous restrictions - implicit or explicit - and straight-jacketing. One cringes at the thought of real freedom of speech when there when there are so many restrictions.

One seemingly faces so many restrictions from a section of the bureaucracy that it is trying to curtail our right to free speech that one would like to ask a few questions:

* How free is our speech when we are beaten down and threatened, if even implicitly, by the very people who are paid to serve us?

* How can we go about changing the country when the bureaucrats would work overtime to find you, work against you and think that even discussing an idea could bring down the world's largest democracy?

Originally posted here:
Opinions aren't dangerous in a democracy (Column: Active Voice)

(2nd UPDATE) The veteran campaigner who formed the NLD with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988 had suffered worsening ill health in recent weeks

DEMOCRACY. Win Tin, who served nearly 20 years in prison and the country's longest-serving political prisoner after challenging the military rule by co-founding the NLD, dies at age 85 on April 21, 2014, his family said. File photo by Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

YANGON, Myanmar (2nd UPDATE) Win Tin, one of the founders of Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition and the nation's longest-serving political prisoner, died Monday, April 21, at the age of 84 after battling for decades to bring freedom to a nation that suffered under military rule.

A former journalist and veteran campaigner, whose near two decades in jail failed to dull his commitment to the democratic cause, had suffered worsening ill health in recent weeks.

He died in hospital in Yangon early Monday, National League for Democracy party spokesman Nyan Win told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, April 23.

A towering figure within the democracy movement, Win Tin formed the NLD with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988 and was imprisoned the following year in the wake of a student-led pro-democracy uprising.

He reiterated his support for party leader Suu Kyi in the days before he died, according to his long-time assistant Yar Zar.

"We are so sad to have lost him it is like the world has been lost," he told AFP.

"But we have many things to do. We will continue as he asked and will follow his way to democracy," he added. (READ: Suu Kyi cautions Myanmar 'not yet a democracy')

Myanmar began its emergence from nearly half a century of military rule in 2011, under a quasi-civilian government that has won international plaudits for reforms including the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

See the rest here:
Veteran Myanmar pro-democracy campaigner Win Tin dies party

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

YANGON -- Win Tin, one of the founders of Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition and its longest-serving political prisoner, diedMondayaged 84 after striving for decades to bring freedom to a nation under military dictatorship.

The former journalist and veteran campaigner, whose almost two decades in jail failed to dull his commitment to the democratic cause, had suffered worsening ill health in recent weeks.

He died in hospital in Yangon earlyMonday, National League for Democracy party spokesman Nyan Win told AFP.

A funeral service will be heldon Wednesday.

Win Tin, a towering figure within the democracy movement, formed the NLD with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988 in the wake of a student-led pro-democracy uprising. He was imprisoned the following year for his political activities.

He reiterated his support for party leader Suu Kyi in the days before he died, according to his long-time assistant Yar Zar.

"It is like the world has been lost. But we have many things to do. We will continue as he asked and will follow his way to democracy," he said.

Myanmar began its emergence from nearly half a century of military rule in 2011, under a quasi-civilian government that has won international praise for reforms including the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

Suu Kyi, who was freed from years of house arrest in 2010, has also been welcomed into parliament at the helm of her party and has indicated her wish to become president after 2015 elections.

See the article here:
Myanmar pro-democracy activist Win Tin dies

Hundreds of protesters rallied on Sunday to demand the "resurrection" of Venezuelan democracy while effigies of both President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders were paraded for burning in a local Easter Day tradition.

Though millions of Venezuelans have headed for Caribbean beaches and family gatherings over the Easter period, student demonstrators have sought to keep a nearly three-month protest movement going with religious-themed demonstrations.

After a barefoot rally and a "Via Crucis" march in the style of Jesus' tortured walk towards crucifixion, the students gathered on Sunday in a Caracas square for a demonstration denominated "Resurrection of Democracy." Easter marks the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead after being crucified.

Members of the national police confront demonstrators during a protest against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on April 20, 2014.

First published April 21 2014, 7:54 AM

More here:
Venezuelans Protest for 'Resurrection of Democracy'

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 21 April) Weve had over a century of democracy and electoral politics but real democracy and inclusive developmentits putative by-productcontinues to be elusive. All the public rituals, the sermonizing, and the verbal admonition to foster the democratic spirit or practice has not made a dent on our society.

We have yet to institutionalize true representative democracy or good governance. The people in charge remain presumptuous, autocratic, and manipulative.

There is no statesmanship. The public service has transmogrified into self-service. The laws are circumvented or openly violated.

Criminality with impunity reigns on all levels. Putschists or coup plotters are rewarded with senate seats. Corrupt or notoriously immoral politicos are elected or re-elected. Thus money politics and demagoguery prevail.

But our electorate remains passive. If it acts willfully at all, it chooses autocrats and oligarchs, or enthrones dynastic rulers.

In light of all this, it is unlikely that our political values and institutions will mature anytime soon, let alone attain parity with those of progressive nations.

For Filipinos to learn the ways of democracy, it is not enough to preach the principles or the spirit of democratic practice. Verbal motivation does not suffice.

What is sorely needed is actual experience in the ways of democracy, not ineffectual slogans and sanctimonious advocacy by do-gooders who themselves are not exactly paragons of responsible citizenship.

And now, in Mindanao, our second largest island, will be added another layer to the dysfunctional system: the so-called ministerial form of governmentone that the MILF itself characterizes as asymmetrical to the present structure and process familiar to everyone. Not a reassuring term; it means irregular, lop-sided, uneven, unbalanced.

A century of attempts to make the current system work has been difficult enough; how do they propose to make an unaccustomed asymmetrical system work? The truth is, the areas contemplated for MILF hegemony are notorious for scuttling democracy and turning electoral politics a travesty.

Originally posted here:
WORMS EYEVIEW: The imperative of hands-on democracy now