A Taiwan Referendum Change My Opinion on Democracy

In 2018, Taiwan government hold a first referendum in Taiwan’s history.

When I was a student, I believe that democracy is the best political system. Under democracy political system, we can criticize the politics and politician without worrying being arrested by police officers, and we can express our ideas without any restriction. However, the last year Taiwan referendum change my opinions on democracy, and it seems that democracy does not ensure minority’s rights and dose not beneficial to those vulnerable.

One of issues is about same-sex marriage: do you agree that marriage defined in the Civil Code should be restricted to the union between one man and one woman?, and do you agree that the Ministry of Education should not implement the Enforcement Rules of the Gender Equality Education Act in elementary and middle schools? Unfortunately, most people agreed with those two questions, and I was disappointed at the results. The outcomes inspire me to ask if it is appropriate that we let majority decide minority’s rights. Do it what we I try to find the answer. Great philosopher Socrates was hugely pessimistic about hold business of democracy. His point is that voting in an election is a skill, not a random institution. Like any skill, it need to be taught systematically to people. Letting citizen vote without an education is as irresponsible as putting them in charge of trireme sailing to Samos in a storm. Although democracy has some flaws, I still think it is better than dictatorship. All we need to do is encouraging people thinking and reading, and educating our people. Let Taiwan become a more mature democracy political system.