Heaven hears through the ears of the people, Heaven sees through the eyes of the people

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang put his foot in his mouth yesterday, suggesting that when democracy is taken "to the extreme, and you have a cultural revolution, for instance, in China. When people take everything into his own hands, then you cannot govern the place."

Excuse me? Sure, when people have a mass revolution, you can't "govern the place," but that has nothing to do with democracy. I can see how a illiterate peasant in rural China might misunderstand the Chinese translation for democracy -- literally, "mastery by the people" -- for mass revolt, but Donald Tsang has no such excuse. A well-trained civil servant under British governance, Mr. Tsang knows exactly what democracy is about -- the orderly rule of the people through laws and procedures. In fact, democracy can be, perhaps unfortunately, all too conservative and anti-change. It is nothing like the quasi-civil war and self-hating chaos of the PRC Cultural Revolution.

Mr. Tsang's comments are revealing, not of his personal thinking, but rather of what he has heard from his colonial rulers in Beijing. Ever since Deng Xiaoping took power, China's leaders have been obsessed -- rightly, perhaps -- with not repeating the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, in particular, the attacks unleased on the Party and government bureaucracy by Mao's Red Guard. Today's leaders came of age under Deng's tutelage and embody those same underlying concerns. Assuming their caution towards democracy is based on some genuine public conern (rather than with a desire to retain the perks of authoritarian power), they fear democracy because they incorrectly believe that it is more likely to lead to the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. (In Hong Kong, opposition democracy is also fueled by tycoons who fear harm to their economic interests. They wouldn't want the people voting for politicians who promised a minimum wage or strengthened labor rights.)

Is China ready to jump tomorrow to a fully democratic system? Given the economic insecurity still present in many parts of China and the unfamiliarity by local government officials with how such a system should work, probably not. Intra-party democracy would be a step forward. But ultimately, China's leaders must set out a roadmap to a constitutional democracy, encompassing constitutional human rights, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, a free press, and elections for the President, the National People's Congress, and provincial and municipal leaders. Otherwise, instability and "taking matters into their own hands" is a far greater risk. As China's many dynasties knew, "the Heaven hears through the ears of the people, Heaven sees through the eyes of the people." (Mencius). And revolution is what you get when you suppress popular sentiment through authoritarian policies. Democracy is the release valve which allows people to vent their dissatisfaction with their leaders. The U.S. has existed as a stable, growing power for almost three hundred years, during which time China saw, depending on how you count, somewhere arguably seven revolutions -- the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Boxer Revolt, Sun Yat-sen's Republican Revolution, the KMT Northern Expedition under Chiang Kaishek, Mao's Communist Revolution, Mao's Cultural Revolution, and arguably the Tiananmen Square protests. So in which system is it more likely for the place to be ungovernable?

Mr. Tsang's comments sad reflections of his inability to stand up for any sense of factual and historical reality. Going forward, he should -- and can -- do better. Hong Kong knows what democracy is, and is ready, tomorrow, to implement it fully, with no cultural revolution required.