Flaws in Democracy
Like they say that humans are never perfect, i believe that the systems brought about by mankind should not be totally perfect. Flaws can also be seen in this system. The power of corruption can bring the pure and innocent democracy down to its knees. why is this so? i shall elaborate. a common practice is the act of buying votes. how does bring democracy down to its knees? like wad kaiwen mentioned, democracy is people power. buying votes will bring about money politics and votes will never be fair. the people will not be the ones controling their affairs but rather the rich politicians and those with enough contacts. another key flaw is like what both mingjun and kaiwen mentioned, educating the public on their right to vote is very important. its not just the 'brain washing' that harms the true meaning of democracy but rather there is also another factor that we must address. some uneducated members of the public may not understand what is democracy and some may not even realize that they have the legal human right to vote. as such many will not vote thus making the whole process unfair and bias. the public must be educated to learn that their vote ultimately decides their future and how they want things to go about.

The Problems of Implementing Democracy
'Everyone has an open mind until people come along and put things in it' and 'Some people are so open minded that their brains fall out'.These two quotes are sort of witty and intended to be amusing, but I think they're quite true. In response to Ming Jun's post, I don't think that that's really open mindedness. Training people to accept whatever you say is probably brainwashing, and rather propagandistic, which seems to be somewhat dictatorship-like.Yes, the teaching of democracy is key to getting the people to work in such a manner, but I think that forced education is just undemocratic to start with. Perhaps, people could be educated on the ideals and outcomes of democracy, and once they see the benefits of it, they will wholeheartedly join in.However, that is how communism seems to work too - the people are benefitted, but then corrupt leaders and human factors come in, and the whole system falls apart. Look at Russia or China. The people were shown exactly how they would benefit, and they voted their leaders in, but eventually, there are millions of starving poor in rural areas, and corrupt officials who live padded lives. Communism was a good idea at first, but it is not a successful action. This would be due to human greed and selfishness.Another problem is that the minority is overlooked in democratic votes or decisions. Just imagine, if all the Chinese in Singapore decided to vote for anti - non Chinese laws, there's nothing that can be done about it.Comments?

How to educate people to accept democracy
Continuing from Kai Wen's point about people looking at the education about democracy as 'brainwashing' and limiting freedom.I feel that the first step to educating people to accept democracy is to teach them to be open-minded. If people are open-minded, they are more likely to accept the democracy education.About the problems of people who insist that the instilling the values of democracy undermines the freedom of the people, I feel that if people are educated to be open-minded, they should be able to accept the teachings of democracy. Anyway, if we thoroughly 'brainwash' the people, they should accept the what is taught to them right?

Democracy creates stability in a society
Does democracy create stability in a society?I feel that it would, to a certain extent.Key beliefs of democracy include freedom and equality, as well as human rights. If a truly democratic state existed, it would embody all of these in its laws and enforce them. Therefore, all people, including minority groups, would be treated equally. As they are happy, there will not be tension between different groups of the community such as the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, or the Tamils and the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. This will help to prevent unrest, and thus promote stability.However, this would be difficult to achieve. In order to gain such a state, the people's thinking must be in line with this concept of equality across races, religions, ethnic groups, gender, and other differences within society. This is where education should come in to teach the people. They should be taught about equality and human rights and have such values instilled in them.Which brings us to another problem - freedom. Such 'brainwashing' could be considered limiting the people's freedom, which is no longer the democratic way. One could argue that people have the right to think what they want. In such a case, the people might start discriminating against others in their minds, leading to discriminatory actions. If the majority press for it, there will be no option but to pass such discriminatory laws, due to the voting system which guarantees an overwhelming majority the right to decide.It can be seen that democracy will not be easy to achieve stability as long as discriminatory views exist in the minds of the people.

What is Stability?
Before we can examine if democracy creates stability, we must also define stability.Stability has many different meanings. It can refer to trajectories, chemicals, directions, mathematics, and more. However, stability here probably means how peaceful the state is. A stable state would probably not have riots or unrest, and the people would be contented and happy.

The Definition of Democracy
Firstly, we must define - what is democracy?Democracy is 'a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections'. In other words, it is a system where citizens control their own affairs, and are given the power to do so. They either do this directly, by voting to pass bills and laws, or indirectly, voting for people to represent them who will make it their jobs to pass such bills and laws.

Teenage and social matters

It’s OK to smoke, don’t worry
Everyday I walk out of MRT station; I am bound to see someone smoking near the 7-eleven store just beside the entrance of the station. Normally, I will instinctively avoid the smoke by holding my breath and walk past quickly. However, I see that if nothing is done about this, the situation will get worse.
Until one day, I see a group of sec 3 or 4 students persuading their friend to smoke. At first, I thought it is just a prank by them and strolled pass casually. Just as I walked half way pass them, I see one of them take out a packet of smoke and hand a cigarette over to another. And another one took out a lighter and lit the cigarette. I was so shocked that the file I was holding on my hand almost slipped out. This is a very serious matter; if more and more teenagers like us start to smoke, what will the future of the society become?
Smoking may be enjoyable to the smokers that are addicted, but the smoke they puffed out is potentially dangerous to non-smokers and damages their lungs. Basically, smoking has no benefits at all, in fact it pose a great harm to our health.
I feel that the government has been too lenient to the law on smoking, which is the reason for all the things I see now. The government should put in more effort into checking on the teenagers and the public area to prevent further influence of smoking. If possible, the government can ban smoking in Singapore since it is just a small country and easy to control. Teachers can also give more education on the bad side of smoking.
From what I know, the teenagers smoke because they think it’s cool and want to try new things. We as young people are very curious of the open society and often do not know many dangers that are hidden. We have a high tendency to venture into a path that will cause great suffering in the future.
Knowing the harmful effects of smoking, I believe that those people will think twice before putting a cigarette in their mouth.