Democracy works with help

Comment on "Western form of democracy not a universal choice" (China Daily, Aug 16)

If people are even fairly well informed about all issues affecting a country and politicians do not lie like hell, democracy works to a certain extent.

Take Japan for instance. We can see how miserably democracy has failed there. Or else, why would the Japanese people vote the grandson of a "war criminal" to the seat of power, not once but twice? Now the grandson, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is doing everything to ruin Japan contrary to the expectations of the overwhelming majority of people who voted for him.

On the other hand, policies in China are adopted based on facts and suggestions of experts who really know the subjects, as opposed to the purblind opinions of people whose knowledge are scanty and oftentimes incorrect. The Chinese system of government, however, could be improved by establishing more direct contact and communication between the central leadership and the people and by attaching greater importance to people's opinions.

OBJECTIVE, from China Daily website