[11.26 英国 经济学人] 太多还是太少 泰国和菲律宾给亚洲民主冠以恶名
【链接】http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12672673【标题】Too much or too little :Thailand and the Philippines give Asian democracy a bad name
【翻译】Krypton
Asia.view
Too much or too little?
太过还是太少？
Nov 26th 2008
From Economist.com
Thailand and the Philippines give Asian democracy a bad name
泰国和菲律宾给亚洲民主冠以恶名
THAILAND’S three-year-old political crisis continued to rage this week, as the increasingly desperate anti-government movement, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), made a last-ditch effort to provoke violence and force the army to stage another coup. It invaded Bangkok’s main airport, prompting the army chief to call on the government to dissolve parliament and for the PAD itself to cease its protests. The PAD’s thuggish tactics have lost it much of the support it once had among Bangkok’s middle classes. Only a fraction of the promised crowd of 100,000-plus materialised this week for its “final” push to overturn the government. Pro-PAD union bosses’ calls for a general strike were generally ignored. But compensating for its dwindling public support is the high-level backing the PAD apparently continues to enjoy from elements in the military and the royal palace, including Queen Sirikit, which has so far rendered it untouchable.
随着不顾一切反政府运动日益增长，泰国长达三年的政治危机本周继续风行，人民民主联盟（PAD）为挑起暴力和强迫军队再一次发动政变作出最后努力。他们侵占曼谷主要机场，催促军官要求政府解散议会以便PAD停止抗议，曾在曼谷中产阶级存在的PAD暗杀策略已经失去绝大多数支持。100000多人中只有一部分本周为颠覆政府作出“最后”努力。人们没有理睬亲PAD协会的头头们号召的大罢工。作为受正在萎缩的公众支持的补偿，PAD仍受到高层的支持，包括军队，皇室（包括不能染指的Queen Sirukit）
The PAD began in late 2005 as a series of peaceful weekly rallies in a Bangkok park against the then prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. It gained traction because Mr Thaksin seemed to regard an electoral mandate as a licence to do as he pleased. Critics were menaced; conflicts of interest between Mr Thaksin’s powers as prime minister and his business empire went unchecked; and he sought to pack the country’s institutions with cronies. Only when his attempts to do this with the army's senior command finally exhausted rival factions' patience did he come a cropper, being removed in the coup of 2006.
2005年下半年开始，PAD便在曼谷公园举行了一系列反对当时的总理他信·西那瓦集会。由于他信将选举授权视为其为所欲为的通行证，PAD当时的举动是有吸引力的。批评家受到恐吓，他信的总理势力与其商业帝国之间的利益冲突不受限制；且任人唯亲。当他想染指军队高级指挥官是，反对派终于耐心耗尽，最终于2006年政变中将其拉下马。
But the PAD has shown itself to be at least as bad. As it goes all-out to bring down the government of Mr Thaksin’s allies, elected last December in a restoration of democracy, its tactics have become ever more threatening. This week its “security guards” shot at government supporters, brandished iron bars at police and hijacked buses. Arguing that ordinary Thais are too “uneducated” to vote for sensible leaders, the PAD is openly pushing for a return to the semi-democracy of the 1980s, with governments dominated by the traditional elite, the royal palace and the army.
但是PAD的表现说明，PAD也非善类。他们竭力推翻去年十二月一次恢复民主的选举胜选的他信同盟的政府，其策略变的更具威胁性。本周，他们的“安全警卫”向政府支持者开枪，使用铁棒对抗警察，并劫持公共汽车。他们表示普通泰国人民太无知，不能选出一位明智的领导人，并公开努力追求回到20世纪八十年代的半民主体制，当时，政府由传统精英阶层，皇室和军队掌控。
In 1997, as Thailand passed what was widely seen as its most democratic
constitution, the country looked set to be a beacon of pluralism in a region that badly needed such a shining light. Now it looks like a poor advertisement for democracy. It has disappointed those hoping it would follow the upwards path of other formerly authoritarian countries, like Spain and Brazil. Instead of evolving into a stable parliamentary democracy, it is back to being a country of coups, street fights and torn-up constitutions.
1997年泰国通过一部被广泛视为最民主的宪法。该国似乎努力在这个急需多元主义光辉的地区树立一盏明灯。如今看上去却像一个民主的不良广告。这让那些希望泰国走上以前一些独裁国家（如西班牙和巴西）前进道路的人感到失望。泰国非但没有形成一个稳定的民主议会制度，反而后退成一个充满暴动，街头抗战混乱的国家。
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The Philippines is also giving democracy a bad name. The latest attempt to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, this time over a dubious telecommunications contract with a Chinese firm, is becoming another grandstanding and score-settling opportunity for politicians. It is distracting the government from dealing with the country’s deep poverty, armed insurgencies and other myriad problems, just like past futile attempts to dislodge Mrs Arroyo for allegedly fiddling the 2004 elections.
菲律宾同样给民主冠以恶名。最近一次弹劾格洛丽亚·马卡帕加尔·阿罗约的努力是基于一份可疑的与中国公司签订的电信合同。这次弹劾成为政治家又一个炫耀和积分清算机会。就像2004年为一无足轻重的选举而驱逐阿罗约的那次尝试一样，它转移了国家处理平穷，武装叛乱和其他众多问题的精力。
Last November the latest in a string of coup attempts against her ended up like a cross between the Marx Brothers and the Keystone Cops. The rebels seized a five-star hotel, vowing to fight to the bloody end. They then meekly surrendered when loyal troops drove an armoured car into the lobby, with the farcical scenes broadcast worldwide on live television.
去年十一月的最新一轮针对阿罗约的政变以像马克思兄弟（1）和启斯通警察（2）相遇一样的结局收尾。叛乱者占领了一个五星级酒店，立誓浴血奋战。但当军队驾驶一辆武装汽车进入大厅时，这些反叛者很温顺的投降了，给世界留下一个滑稽的笑柄。
Surveying this disorder and lack of progress, the proponents of “Asian values” may be saying “We told you so.” Their argument, at its height in the early 1990s, when South-East Asia was enjoying rapid economic development while remaining largely undemocratic, was that too much “Western-style” liberty would only lead to trouble, disrupting the region’s rising prosperity and leaving its inhabitants worse off.
审视这种混乱和停滞不前的状况，“亚洲价值观”的支持者可能会说“我们早就告诉你们会这样”，他们的论点在20世纪90年代初，南亚经济迅速发展、而政体依然不民主时期达到顶峰，这种观点认为太多的“西方式”自由只会导致混乱，破坏该地区的持续繁荣，并至人民与水火。
Their argument was somewhat weakened by the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis, but it did not die. In Singapore’s 2006 general election, a young voter put it to the country’s elder statesmen and Asian-values champion, Lee Kuan Yew, that allowing greater freedom of expression would make it stronger. He retorted: “You mean to tell me that what is happening in Thailand and the Philippines is binding the people, building the nation?” This week Chris Patten, a former governor of Hong Kong, expressed fears in a BBC interview that China was offering a negative example of economic development without democracy.
这种观点受到1997~98年亚洲金融危机的冲击，但并没有消失。2006年新加坡普选时，一位年轻的投票人对该国年长的政治家，亚洲价值观集大成者李光耀提出更多的言论自由会使新加坡更强大。李光耀反驳：“你是在告诉我泰国和菲律宾发生的事情是蒙蔽了人们眼睛，建设了国家吗？”本周，前香港港都彭定康在BBC一次采访中表达了对中国树立的不要民主、经济也可以快速发展的负面榜样的担忧。
At least Indonesia—the most populous country in South-East Asia—is belatedly showing signs of becoming more democratic. Perhaps shocked into sensibleness by the rioting that accompanied the economic crisis of a decade ago and the accompanying collapse of the Suharto regime, its political actors mostly accept the need to stay within bounds and respect the rule of law. Malaysia, ruled by the same coalition since independence from Britain 51 years ago, may experience its first peaceful transfer of power at its next elections. Even Singapore’s tiny, fragmented opposition is mainly the victim of its own disunity and failure to present a coherent alternative to Mr Lee’s super-efficient People’s Action Party.
至少印度尼西亚——南亚人口最多的国家——姗姗来迟的展示了越来越民主的迹象。可能是受十年前经济危机伴随的暴乱和随之而来的苏哈托政体（3）的瓦解的震撼而产生的判断力，其政治参与者广泛接受不越位的要求，并尊重法律。马来西亚，这个51年前从英国独立出来后就有同一联合政府统治的国家，可能会在下一次选举中经历第一次政权和平交接。甚至新加坡微小，破碎的反对派也是他们自身的不统一，不能呈现一个连贯的对李光耀高效人民运动党的替代政府的牺牲品。
So all is not lost yet. Returning to London this week after three years as The Economist’s South-East Asia correspondent, this writer departs as convinced as ever—despite the superficial signs to the contrary—that Asians are potentially just as capable as Scandinavians at running their affairs democratically if given a chance—and, just as important, if they eize it.
所以，希望还是有的。本周，在南亚做了三年经济学人通讯记者的作家回到伦敦，他是带着这样的信念离开的——尽管表面征兆相反——亚洲跟北欧一样，只要有机会，并能抓住的话，他们一样能够民主的经营自己的事务。
The main problem is too little democracy, not too much. Selfish and self-important elites of various types still dominate much of the region, from Thailand’s royalists to the Philippines’ landed gentry, from Malaysia’s crony-capitalists to Vietnam’s crony-communists. Overcoming them will require more capable, more principled and more unifying opposition figures than those the region has seen so far. Even Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon, stands accused of failing in the tactics department, for all her courage and charisma. There is no need to assume that liberty must be traded for prosperity; the world’s richest countries are also, generally, its freest. It is a pity that, Japan apart, there are so few Asian examples on the list.
主要问题是民主太少，而非太多。各种自私自大的精英仍然掌控着大部分区域，从泰国保皇人士到菲律宾地主贵族，从马来西亚的任人唯亲的资本家到越南任人唯亲的共产党。战胜他们需要比这些地区目前为止出现的更有能力，更有原则，更统一的反对派人物。即使浑身肝胆，魅力无限的昂山素姬（4），缅甸亲民主偶像人物，也要面临政策失败的指责。现在无需作出自由必须要付出繁荣的代价的猜想，世上最富有的国家也是最自由的国家。可惜的是，除了日本，列表上还没有亚洲的例子。
译者注：（1） 美国早期的喜剧演员中，除了卓别林Charles Chaplin、巴斯特·基顿Buster Keaton和劳埃德Harold Lloyd之外，Marx兄弟也非常受欢迎。他们也是最经典的喜剧之王，被称为无政府主义四贱客，尽管他们只合作了十数部电影，但仍被誉为影史最成功的喜剧团体之一，他们堪称无厘头的鼻祖，热衷于塑造或癫狂或装傻充愣的人物，表现荒诞不经的内容，并凭此独步20世纪 30年代的喜剧电影界。
（2）1914-1920年初由美国启斯东影片公司拍的默片喜剧中经常出现的一队愚蠢而无能的警察
（3） 苏哈托 Haji·Mohammad·Suharto （1921年6月8日～2008年1月27日），印度尼西亚共和国第二任总统、双手沾满鲜血的刽子手、世界巨贪。苏哈托1965年以所谓「粉碎共产主义政变」夺权， 1967年成为总统，任内吞并东帝汶，残酷镇压亚齐省分离主义人士以及包括教师、知识分子等在内的左派人士，华人更屡屡遭殃。他是印尼历史上最大的独裁者、屠夫民贼，1965年9月30日发生的所谓“印尼共产党政变”(Kudeta PKI)，即被印尼学校历史书称为的“九三零盖世太保”(Gestapu 30 December)，根据印尼及美国、澳大利亚等知情作者出书披露，已被证明是美国与苏哈托一手导演的一箭数雕的政治阴谋。其组织的严密及执行力之强大，造成死伤人数达460万人，过程之惨烈，世界历史上绝无仅有。空前绝后。他是包括印尼共产党、工会、农会及知识分子等印尼进步力量的死敌，夺权之后，将手无寸铁的共产党人及进步群众包括同情者，斩尽杀绝，血流成河、横尸遍野；而印尼的几十万华裔则被当作替罪羊，遭到屠杀、监禁和流放。
（4）Aung San Suu Kyi，1945年6月19日－）生于缅甸仰光，是缅甸非暴力提倡民主的政治家，但现被缅甸军政府软禁于其寓所中。1990年她获得萨哈罗夫奖，翌年获得诺贝尔和平奖。
[ 本帖最后由 krypton 于 2008-11-27 15:32 编辑 ] 欧洲人就少管管亚洲的事情了，你们又不懂亚洲的事情Q43) 不是民主太少，是“自由”太多，法纪太少 现在谁想到泰国之后的第一印象是佛国？o020) 西方人，最好让森林中的大猩猩学会了民主，再来说西方民主是好东西。
民主未必是必须建立在西方式的政体上，民主同样可以在不同的政体（一党、两党、多党、帝制等）上体现，导致混乱、贫穷、杀戮的西式民主不要也罢。
邓曾经说过贫穷落后的社会主义不是社会主义，同样如果是混乱暴力的西式民主也不是我们需要的所谓自由 可怜的西方人还没搞明白的是,他们眼里唯一成功的非西方民主国家日本
也是个"民主"太少的国家,也是个"各种自私自大的精英仍然掌控着大部分区域"
的国家. 最近还是不要去泰国旅游啦，安全第一啊
thuggish tactics怎么成了暗杀策略？
thuggish tactics 。thug不是暴徒，恶棍吗？ 日本在美國的保護傘安心發展，為對付中俄，美國也為日本第二次崛起提供了很多幫助。很明顯那日本當例子就很荒謬。
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