I commend Josh Hong for his interesting letter Misplaced democracy? on Keadilan's call to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration to follow China's Communist Party by initiating a smooth transfer of power to the younger generation.

Just as he "understands the good intentions of the statement issued by Keadilan's central publicity bureau", I too understand his good intentions in reminding readers that China is still ruled by an authoritarian government.

Nevertheless, he ought to be a little bit more circumspect when accusing Keadilan's central publicity bureau with Chinese nationalism, knowing full well that Umno likes nothing more than to hurl such charges at the opposition in order to deflect attention from its own chauvinistic/ racial supremacist agenda.

Of course, Keadilan's call reflects an appreciation of the Chinese Communist Party's smooth transfer of power, and in this, the central publicity bureau is not alone in echoing this sentiment. Moreover, recognising a positive step forward does not mean wholesale approval of the Chinese Communist Party: everyone is keenly aware that real power remains in the hands of Jiang Zemin, who continues as chairperson of the central military commission.

One can applaud the pre-war Germans for introducing the people's car, Volkswagon, without necessarily supporting Nazism, or commend Mahathir for his timely currency peg during the Asian financial crisis without supporting Umno's brand of politics.

In short, Keadilan can and should be allowed to ask the Mahathir administration to emulate the smooth power transfer undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party.

It is not a total transfer of power, but only the most rabid anti-China observer would deny that some power has been transferred, and that it does signify important progress in the long road to Chinese democracy.

Regarding Taiwan: Hong's phrase "this nation of Chinese-speaking people" seems to suggest that island country is not Chinese. It is and its history as a Chinese province stretches back to over a thousand years. It was during the Sui dynasty (in 607 AD) that an official was sent by the Chinese Emperor to administer the island.

During the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty, Taiwan was governed as part of Fujian province. When the Dutch invaded the island in 1624, there were already over 30,000 Chinese settlers. In 1661 Ming nationalist Cheng Cheng-kung (Koxinga) defeated the Dutch and set up his own capital on the island. Taiwan became a prefecture of Fujian province in 1683. It became a full province in 1886, with a population of about 2.5 million.

The island was ceded to Japan after the infamous1895 Sino-Japanese war, but was restored to the Republic of China as a result of the terms of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War Two. The United States secretary of state declared on Jan 6, 1950, that "for the United States government at this date to seek to establish a non-Chinese government on Formosa (Taiwan) . . . would be almost universally interpreted throughout Asia as an attempt by this government to separate Formosa from China in violation of its pledges and contrary to its long-standing policy of respecting the territorial integrity of China."

Throughout all these years, despite the ups and downs of Sino-American relationship, the United States has kept to the promise that it recognises only one China. That is why, until today, Taiwan or the Republic of China is still not recognised as a separate country by the United Nations.

Not only is Taiwan Chinese about ninety percent of its population are of the Han (Chinese) race. The so-called "Taiwanese" dialect so beloved by Western reporters is what we Malaysians call 'Hokkien', a dialect spoken by more people on the mainland than on Taiwan.

So, from a historical and legalistic viewpoint, Taiwan is part of China. However, from a moral viewpoint, Taiwan has every right to be independent if it so desires: it already is independent de facto , anyway.

Centuries ago, the vast majority of Americans were of British stock, spoke the same language and shared the same culture when they fought their former homeland during the American Revolutionary War. Taiwan, as a democratic country, has every right to take all measures necessary to defend its freedom and independence, all the more so when China is still under a one-party dictatorship. We all hope, however, that a peaceful solution could be found.

About this matter of "older Chinese Malaysians" who're allegedly China-centric: There are a small number of such people, just as there are Malay Malaysians, old and not so old, who're Indonesian or even Arabian-centric. Most of these Chinese Malaysians, however, are to be found not in the opposition, but within the MCA. Whatever the case, their identification with China comes partly from a shared culture, but mostly because they are stigmatised as the other by a government that considers them perpetual non-bumiputera or pendatang-pendatang (immigrants).

Now to the idea that "democracy is democracy." It is not that simple. Participatory democracy is almost non-existent anywhere in the world. Even in ancient Athens, democracy was limited to its citizens minus the women who were not allowed to vote and off-limits to its large slave population. It was also not the kind of democracy we would like to imagine: citizens, for example, didn't have the right to privacy nor freedom of dress. In one city-state, men were not allowed to shave their beards.

Nevertheless, humankind has come a long way since ancient Greece and today progressive nations try to practise democracy by decentralising power. This is done not only through responsive and transparent government institutions, but also through civil society groups.

Today, Switzerland is probably the nearest thing to a participatory democracy. Most other countries are of a more representative type, moderated by large numbers of representative institutions such as state and city legislatures. In the United States, the power of Washington is also checked by the considerable powers granted to individual states. It is not a perfect democracy, as money tends to corrupt the system, and it's not exactly a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." But it's still more democratic than most countries of similar size.

In other words, there are various degrees of democracy, and our duty is to enlarge as much as possible our democratic space. Taiwan has come a long way on this road since Kuomintang rule, and China, despite its totalitarian structure, has made small but nevertheless significant steps. Malaysia, however, appears to have gone backwards, from the relatively benign democracy under Tunku Abdul Rahman to that of an authoritarian state under the present administration.

There are other simplistic and rather contentious statements in the letter, including the jump from "older Chinese Malaysians" to "many Chinese Malaysians" who "are still obsessed with a misguided nationalism," but perhaps we can discuss those claims another day.