On the face of it, these are lean times for champions of Asian democracy. Two of the most attractive democratic pin-ups of yore, Thailand and the Philippines, are looking decidedly haggard. Thais no longer trust parliament to sort out their differences and have taken their grievances to the streets. In the Philippines, which goes to the polls next month, political violence scaled new heights with the massacre last November of 57 people. Their offence had been to try to register an opposition candidate. Afghanistan went through the pain of elections last year, though a lot of people wonder why it bothered. And Sri Lanka's brief flirtation with post-civil war democratic inclusion lasted roughly five minutes: Sarath Fonseka has discovered to his cost that the price of running against the incumbent president is jail.
表面上看，倡導亞洲民主的人正處在艱難時期。泰國和菲律賓這兩個昔日最令人矚目的民主樣板，看上去明顯疲憊不堪。泰國人不再指望議會來解決他們之間的分歧，而是走上街頭髮洩自己的不滿。在下月將舉行選舉的菲律賓，政治暴力已上升到一個新的高度：在去年11月的一起屠殺中，有57人遇害——他們的「過錯」只是試圖爲一位反對黨候選人登記參選。阿富汗去年也經歷了選舉之痛，儘管很多人不明白它何苦這麼費事。斯里蘭卡在內戰結束之後曾淺嘗民主，但這一努力只持續了大約五分鐘：薩拉特•豐塞卡(Sarath Fonseka)喫了一番苦頭後才發現，在競選中與現任總統作對的代價是進監獄。