Sam Chan's letter, [#1] People Power: Can we pay the price? [/#] (Feb 2), is a reflection of a typical "don't rock the boat" mentality of many middle-class Malaysians.

The writer questions the credentials of the new president of the Philippines to run the country, but forgets about the ousted president who has robbed and stolen from his country and people.

As for the Malaysia Airlines analogy, while the writer is certainly not capable of running MAS, is the company being run by a qualified leadership? If so, why is it losing so much money at a time when airlines around the region are having record profits? Why is the government using the people's money to bail out the airline after it ran into trouble under the management of a businessman who had no experience in the industry?

I am politically neutral and a non-Muslim, but I wonder how the writer arrived at the conclusion that if Keadilan comes into power, the country will be more "Islamic"?

No one claims that there is no flaw in the democracy practised in the United States or Western Europe. Democracy is part of human civilisation that is ever changing and improving with time.

I respect many dedicated Malaysians who have been working hard and are still working to attain broader democracy for the country. Freedom of speech is just part of democracy. Opposition parties should not be branded as anti-government or working against society, as their role is akin to that of auditors who check on the government to make sure that it is running properly.

Corruption happens everywhere in the world, but the important thing is that the leaders must have the determination to eradicate it. An independently run anti-corruption agency must have the power to prosecute anyone who is corrupt irrespective of his or her power or affiliation with the powers that be.

Racial bias also happens everywhere in the world. The main reason for racial bias in the US and everywhere else is lack of understanding and ignorance of a small group of people. The highly publicised Rodney King case is an isolated one that happened in Los Angeles about 10 years ago (I was there, and still am) but the perpetrators has since been jailed. Think of a comparable case here: Has justice showed her hand yet?

Taiwan has taken a big leap forward in terms of democracy and even though the newly elected president is not very popular among the Taiwanese people now, they are mostly grateful for their present system compared with Chiang Kai Shek's totalitarian rule a little more than a decade ago.