Democracy is a successful model of governance in the Western world, where the literacy rate is high and education level is comparatively high. Tolerance, freedom of expression, human rights, economic situation, and sense of respect to different opinion is much higher. People understand that by power of vote they can change any government, if they do not like them. Spirit of democracy is exercised in its original authentic essence. Voters are well aware of power of its vote and politicians are sensible to respect their voters. If there are any exceptional cases, the public reject the wrong candidates in the next elections. The institutions are strong enough to perform their duties under any circumstances. The good or bad political larders cannot harm too much. Courts are there to provide relief in case of any deviation from the constitution.
在西方世界，民主是一种成功的治理模式，那里的识字率很高，教育水平相对较高。宽容、言论自由、人权、经济状况和尊重不同意见的意识要高得多。人们明白，如果他们不喜欢任何政府，他们可以通过投票权改变任何政府。民主精神是在其最初的真实本质中发挥作用的。选民们很清楚投票的力量，政治家们也明智地尊重他们的选民。如果有任何例外情况，公众会在下次选举中拒绝错误的候选人。这些机构足够强大，能够在任何情况下履行职责。好的或坏的政治储藏室都不会造成太大的伤害。如果出现任何违反宪法的情况，法院将提供救济。
However, in developing world, where the majority of public is illiterate and political leaders are corrupt, greedy and cruel. Democracy in the developing nations is a much deviated format and deteriorated form. The spirit of democracy is missing and a kind of dictatorship covered with the cloth of democracy is being exercised. Freedom of expression is lacking severely, Human rights are violated openly, Judiciary has been failed to deliver justice, Institutions failed to perform their constitutional duties, and etc.
然而，在发展中国家，大多数公众是文盲，政治领导人腐败、贪婪和残忍。发展中国家的民主是一种背离和恶化的形式，民主精神缺失，实行的是一种披着民主外衣的独裁统治。言论自由严重缺乏，人权遭到公开侵犯，司法机构未能伸张正义，各机构未能履行宪法义务，等等。
Let’s examine the case of Asia, which highly populated region in the world and playing an important role in the geopolitics and global economy.
让我们来看看亚洲的例子，它是世界上人口稠密的地区，在地缘政治和全球经济中发挥着重要作用。
In terms of elections, voting, and electoral exercises, 2024 has been an extremely busy year worldwide. In South Asia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives are heading to polls this year. In the race to elect their leaders, Bangladesh took the lead in the region to hold national parliamentary elections on January 7. According to emerging results, the incumbent political party, the Awami League (AL), has won by a landslide, claiming about 75% of the country’s parliamentary seats. This continues to make the AL leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister—having won five times, four of which have been consecutive victories and the longest-serving female head of a country in the world. But what is the issue with the current elections in Bangladesh? Why are people upset with the election outcome? Were the general elections not free, fair, and transparent?
就选举、投票和选举活动而言，2024年是全球极其繁忙的一年。在南亚，印度、巴基斯坦、斯里兰卡、不丹和马尔代夫将于今年进行投票。在选举领导人的竞争中，孟加拉国在该地区率先于1月7日举行了全国议会选举。根据新出现的结果，现任政党人民联盟以压倒性优势获胜，占据了该国约75%的议会席位。这继续使AL领导人谢赫·哈西娜·瓦杰德成为孟加拉国任期最长的总理，她赢得了五次胜利，其中四次是连胜，也是世界上任期最久的女性国家元首。但是，孟加拉国目前的选举有什么问题？为什么人们对选举结果感到不安？大选不是自由、公平和透明的吗？
Bangladesh is located east of India and home to more than 170 million people. The election’s outcome has its background. Months of growing tension across Bangladesh saw political protests turn violent, leading to the arrest of thousands of political opposition members and leaving behind questions about what is happening to the democratic elections in Bangladesh. The main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the AL to step down in favour of a caretaker government overseeing the election. The government rejected this request, and the opposition ultimately boycotted the elections.
孟加拉国位于印度东部，人口超过1.7亿。选举结果有其背景。孟加拉国各地持续数月的紧张局势加剧，政治抗议演变为暴力，导致数千名政治反对派成员被捕，并留下了关于孟加拉国民主选举发生了什么的问题。主要反对党孟加拉国民族党（BNP）呼吁AL总理谢赫·哈西娜下台，支持由看守政府监督选举。政府拒绝了这一要求，反对派最终抵制了选举。
Days before elections, Bangladesh’s main opposition party started a 48-hour general strike, calling on people to boycott the polls because of its perceived unfairness under the supervision of the incumbent Prime Minister, who desperately sought to return to power for the fourth term on the trot. The main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former premier Khaleda Zia, vowed to disrupt the election through a strike and boycott. According to the Associated Press, the election turnout was around 40%. Hence, it becomes evident that the polls were not “free or fair,” and the outcome does not represent the majority population.
选举前几天，孟加拉国主要反对党开始了48小时的大罢工，呼吁人们抵制投票，因为在现任总理的监督下，投票被认为是不公平的，而现任总理拼命寻求连任第四个任期。由前总理卡莱达·齐亚领导的主要反对党孟加拉国民族主义党发誓要通过罢工和抵制来破坏选举。据美联社报道，选举投票率约为40%。因此，很明显，民意调查不是“自由或公平的”，结果也不代表大多数人。
Here, the question comes to mind: Is Bangladesh’s latest election part of a larger trend of democratic regression in South Asia and Southeast Asia? Is there any realization that political instability in all these countries will directly affect peace, prosperity, and stability in the region and beyond?
在这里，我想到了一个问题：孟加拉国最近的选举是南亚和东南亚民主倒退的更大趋势的一部分吗？是否意识到所有这些国家的政治不稳定将直接影响该地区及其他地区的和平、繁荣与稳定？
Since the late 2000s, Southeast Asia’s democratization has stalled, and in some of the region’s most economically and strategically important nations, democracy has gone into reverse order. Over the past ten years, Thailand has undergone a rapid and severe regression from democracy and is now ruled by a junta. Thai forces have filed dubious legal cases against Pita Limjaroenrat, the progressive leader of the Move Forward Party (MFP), who is mandated to become the country’s next prime minister, to keep him from taking his parliamentary seat. This is a time-worn tactic in Bangkok that Thailand’s compliant judiciary will likely sustain. In the meantime, they have already successfully side-lined the MFP from being part of any government formed, even though it won the most seats in the lower house elections.
自21世纪末以来，东南亚的民主化一直停滞不前，在该地区一些经济和战略最重要的国家，民主已经倒退。在过去的十年里，泰国经历了民主的快速而严重的倒退，现在由军政府统治。泰国军队对前进党（MFP）的进步领袖皮塔·林贾罗恩拉特提起了可疑的法律诉讼，以阻止他获得议会席位。这在曼谷是一种过时的策略，泰国合规的司法机构很可能会维持这种策略。与此同时，他们已经成功地将最惠国党排除在任何组建的政府之外，尽管它在下议院选举中赢得了最多的席位。
In Cambodia, Hun Sen announced that he was handing power to his son Hun Manet- the decision lacked popular support. Myanmar’s junta, which crushed the country’s weak and troubled democracy with a February 2021 coup, now faces a serious threat to its existence from emboldened resistance forces that control large portions of the country.
在柬埔寨，洪森宣布将权力移交给他的儿子洪马内——这一决定缺乏民众支持。缅甸军政府在2021年2月的政变中粉碎了该国脆弱而混乱的民主，现在面临着控制该国大部分地区的大胆抵抗力量对其生存的严重威胁。
Even three stronger and bigger democracies in the Southeast region, namely the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, are also backsliding. In the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, badly undermined democracy, and his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos, has surprised observers—especially given his pedigree—by moderating some of Duterte’s worst excesses in economic and foreign policy. It remains to be seen if he will follow through to repair all the damage to the country’s human rights landscape.
即使是东南地区三个更强大、更大的民主国家，即菲律宾、印度尼西亚和马来西亚，也在倒退。在菲律宾，2016年至2022年担任菲律宾第16任总统的罗德里戈·杜特尔特（Rodrigo Duterte）严重破坏了民主，他的继任者费迪南德·马科斯（Ferdinand Marcos）总统缓和了杜特尔特在经济和外交政策上的一些最严重的过度行为，这让观察家们感到惊讶，尤其是考虑到他的血统。他是否会坚持到底，修复对该国人权状况的所有损害，还有待观察。
In Indonesia, in addition to faltering on promised reforms and allowing regressive criminal laws to be passed, Jokowi, the president of Indonesia, has expanded the powers and influence of the armed forces, which have a history of massive human rights abuses. With greater control of governmental functions, the Indonesian military could further dilute democracy. In Malaysia, while Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim fought for decades as an opposition leader for democratic reforms, he finally won the top job thanks to a coalition government that includes the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). This long-time autocratic party ruled the country for decades. To keep the UMNO placated, Anwar has been quiet about many human rights issues, sometimes even appearing to have lost control of his government to the UMNO.
在印度尼西亚，除了在承诺的改革和允许倒退的刑法获得通过方面犹豫不决之外，印尼总统佐科维还扩大了武装部队的权力和影响力，因为武装部队有大规模侵犯人权的历史。随着对政府职能的更大控制，印尼军方可能会进一步削弱民主。在马来西亚，尽管总理安瓦尔·易卜拉欣作为反对党领袖为民主改革斗争了几十年，但由于包括马来民族联合组织（UMNO）在内的联合政府，他最终赢得了最高职位。这个长期独裁的政党统治了这个国家几十年。为了安抚巫统，安瓦尔对许多人权问题保持沉默，有时甚至似乎已经失去了对其政府的控制权。
Let’s reflect on South Asia. The issue of democratic decline in Bangladesh has raised its head yet again. India, another important South Asian country, is also going through an election phase but with a drift toward regressive democracy. The modality of India’s democratic decline reveals how democracies die today: not through a dramatic coup or midnight arrests of opposition leaders. Instead, it moves through the fully legal harassment of the opposition, intimidation of the media, and centralization of executive power. By equating government criticism with disloyalty to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is diminishing the idea that opposition is a legitimate political force. India today is no longer the world’s largest democracy that stands for the rights of its citizens, becoming a voice for its minorities and all other groups belonging to different ideological and religious backgrounds.
让我们反思一下南亚。孟加拉国民主衰落的问题再次引起人们的注意。另一个重要的南亚国家印度也正在经历选举阶段，但正在走向倒退的民主。印度民主衰落的模式揭示了民主国家今天是如何消亡的：不是通过戏剧性的政变或午夜逮捕反对派领导人。相反，它通过对反对派的完全合法骚扰、对媒体的恐吓和行政权力的集中。通过将政府批评等同于对国家不忠，总理纳伦德拉·莫迪的政府正在削弱反对派是合法政治力量的观念。今天的印度不再是世界上最大的民主国家，代表其公民的权利，成为其少数民族和所有其他属于不同意识形态和宗教背景的群体的代言人。
Worth mentioning, two typical products of Western style democracy: Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. Both are democratically elected prime ministers, both are fanatics and extremist, and engaged in genocide of Muslims , one in Palestine and other in Kashmir. Both are defaulter of UN and denying to implement the resolutions of UNSC regarding Palestine and Kashmir. Both are racist and violators of human rights. Unfortunately, both are supported by the US and its allies – Western World. Both are getting financial, economic, defence, political and diplomatic support from the US led Western block. And both are black spot on the American foreign policy.
值得一提的是，西方式民主的两个典型产物：以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡和印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪。两人都是民选总理，都是狂热分子和极端分子，都参与了对穆斯林的种族灭绝，一个在巴勒斯坦，另一个在克什米尔。两人都是联合国的违约者，否认执行联合国安理会关于巴勒斯坦和克什米尔的决议。两者都是种族主义者和侵犯人权者。不幸的是，两者都得到了美国及其盟友西方世界的支持。双方都得到了美国领导的西方集团的财政、经济、国防、政治和外交支持。两者都是美国外交政策上的污点。
Pakistan is no exception to other Asian democracies. It has been ruled by Military almost one third of its life and even two third time, the democratic government were also lacking the real spit of democracy. As a result, it is still facing huge economic challenges and other issues. Pakistan is a nation of 230 million, rich in natural resources, and blessed with diversity, yet, could not achieve a remarkable development. It is all the potential to prosper and join the club of developed nations, but, due to poor governance, could not attain any status among the civilized nations.
巴基斯坦也不例外于其他亚洲民主国家。它几乎三分之一的生命都是由军方统治的，甚至三分之二的时间，民主政府也缺乏真正的民主。因此，它仍然面临着巨大的经济挑战和其他问题。巴基斯坦是一个拥有2.3亿人口的国家，拥有丰富的自然资源和丰富的多样性，但却未能实现显著的发展。它完全有可能繁荣并加入发达国家的俱乐部，但由于治理不善，它无法在文明国家中获得任何地位。
The economic prosperity of West is because of their democratic values and good governance. We all are inspired from the economic performance of West, but, are hesitant to follow the democratic values in later and spirit. It’s time that the Asian countries learn from their past mistakes and move towards a truly democratic path that requires free, fair, and transparent elections.
西方的经济繁荣是因为他们的民主价值观和良好的治理。我们都受到西方经济表现的鼓舞，但在以后和精神上都对遵循民主价值观犹豫不决。现在是亚洲国家从过去的错误中吸取教训，走向真正民主的道路的时候了，这需要自由、公平和透明的选举。
( 注意： 本文章用百度翻译的， 很可能有差异。 请参考原版英文的。 谢谢。）
Reference Link:- https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/02/13/democracy-in-west-and-east-are-different-versions/