Phoenix City is full of energy: election concept

Phoenix City is full of energy: election concept I mentioned in last week’s essay that when faced with making a choice, no matter in work or entertainment, one must make an immediate decision without hesitation...

Phoenix City is full of energy: election philosophy. I mentioned in last week's essay that when faced with making a choice, whether in work or entertainment, you must make a decision immediately and without hesitation. If you "build a house next to the road" and listen to too many different opinions and think over and over again, you will make mistakes. Coincidentally, on that day, Friday, December 9, 2011, I participated in the annual presidential election of the Phoenix Chinese Senior Citizens Association. Among the four candidates, I could only choose one to vote. I really had to make a decision immediately. There was no time to hesitate. I had to write in a flash, choose the candidate, and put my vote in the box. "Fish and bear's paw", it is relatively easy to give up the fish and take the bear's paw. Now that you have the dragon's liver and the phoenix's gall, you cannot have both. It is really difficult to choose. You may make mistakes or go against your original intentions. It seems that voting is not an easy task. Living in this century, elections are no longer uncommon. If you often participate in various group activities, you will inevitably have to elect presidents and other duties. Even if you don't socialize, as a citizen, you still have to vote, elect mayors, governors, congressmen, presidents, etc. The cycle is endless. Even if you abstain from voting and do not participate, you can still watch TV news at home, and there will be election news everywhere. Asian countries are especially lively. Looking at the elections in Taiwan and Hong Kong, there are always quarrels and even physical confrontations. Just like in Taiwan, even the election for the mayor of Sesame and Mung Bean, the village chief, has been agitated and eye-catching. I always feel that the elections of the Asian people are not as sophisticated as those of European and American people. European and American candidates can blame each other during the election. Once elected, the losing party will congratulate the other party's success, cooperate with each other in the future, be broad-minded, and wait for the next election again to engage in healthy competition. However, most Asians lack this kind of grace. After losing the election, they appear aggrieved and unwilling to cooperate. They know that the implementation of the policy is reasonable but deliberately obstruct it. There are many topics about elections. Looking back at my time in Vietnam, I knew about elections when I was in elementary school. When I was in fourth grade, I was nominated by my teachers and classmates to be class president. The whole class voted by a show of hands. Until I graduated from elementary school in sixth grade, I was always re-elected as class president, and no classmates could compete with me. The second time I was nominated for election was after the liberation of the South. I organized a literary friends' association at the Liberation Daily in Saigon. At that time, I shouted for socialism, but I was always afraid of people's change of mind. The candidates were determined by default, and the voting was just a formality. I was the main force in promoting the Literary Friendship Association, and I had to be the president. However, I was a soldier of the old regime and lacked the aura of revolution. I had to take the deputy seat in name. But it didn’t matter. I was not pursuing fame and position. If I served my best, I would be respected regardless of whether I was a deputy or a deputy. As for the first time I exercised my right to vote, it was the second presidential election of the Republic of Vietnam in 1959. Everyone held their election certificates and waited in a long queue to vote. The result was Ngo Dinh Diem's ​​victory. At that time, the people were not really enthusiastic about supporting the candidates, but they were worried about checking the paper in the future. If they found that there was no election and were suspected of being saboteurs of the Communist Party, they would suffer. Many people think that the electoral concept is imported from Western countries. In fact, China has known how to select talents for a long time, but the rules are different. Let's look at the ancient "Book of Rites" in "Li Yun." In the chapter "Datong", there is this record: "In the journey of the great road, the world is for the common good. Select the worthy and capable, keep faith and cultivate harmony." It can be seen from this that China advocated "selecting talents and talents" during the period of Confucius. More than 2,000 years ago, it was a very advanced, democratic, and practical selection method. In the same era, no country in the world has reached such a standard. If it can be followed and implemented seriously, Wei Cai will be in place and the advantages will outweigh the disadvantages. I believe the country can be governed well. "Han Feizi" also mentioned that "the sage king Ming Jun Pang does not avoid relatives when doing internal affairs, and does not avoid enemies when doing external affairs. It is because of the reason, so he can promote it, and because of it, he punishes him." Serving the country emphasizes talents, even if they are enemies, they still have to recommend them, not to people but to things. Talented people can govern the country. In the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin had the prosperous period of the "Government of Zhenguan", which advocated "only the virtuous should be promoted, and careful selection should be the first". The wise kings in ancient times were so broad-minded in appointing wise men, which is much better than the narrow-minded votes today. Since China has long had the good concepts of "selecting the talented and capable", "promoting only the worthy", and "not avoiding relatives when promoting internally, and not avoiding enemies when promoting externally", why does China not have a democratic system for people to elect government officials? This is related to the national conditions. Because China is a large country with a large population, it is difficult to popularize education. Confucius has long been aware of this, so he founded private schools to promote civilian education and train scholars to serve the country. Common people make up the majority, nobles make up the minority, and the knowledge level of the common people is low. If a group of unlearned people manage state affairs, it will definitely make a mess. Therefore, power is often in the hands of educated people, or talented and virtuous people are elected to govern without allowing the common people to participate. This is the main reason. In the past, China's special national conditions led to the development of the imperial examination system to select talents, but did not form the European and American concept of mass elections. This is the reason. In fact, each system also has its advantages and disadvantages. As the international situation advances, we have now followed the example of democratic elections in many aspects. From assemblies and associations to government agencies, regular voting is conducted. Although there are sometimes deviations, it is a liberal democratic system after all. Everyone can discuss it openly and everything can be solved.