Issue Date: 
Jan 19 2006 - 11:00pm
Author: 
Page3
Topics: 
city living

The Feedback Unit recommends that we should all be issued a “Singapore Politics” guidebook, to be written by an independent think tank. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page here, we present some interpretations of the concept “democracy.”Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.Abraham LincolnDemocracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.George Bernard Shaw A democrat need not believe that the majority will always reach a wise decision. He should however believe in the necessity of accepting the decision of the majority, be it wise or unwise, until such a time that the majority reaches another decision.Bertrand RussellIn a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.Chris PattenDemocracy: In which you say what you like and do what you’re told.Dave BarryPolitics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.Groucho MarxOur democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.Helen KellerDemocracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.Jawaharlal NehruThose who make peaceful change impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.John F. KennedyWho’s more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?Obi Wan KenobiDemocracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.Oscar Wilde