Documents on Democracy

Forty-five prominent Chinese intellectuals issued a May 15 petition to China’s leaders calling for increased political tolerance. The petitioners urged that the “counterrevolutionary” verdict on the 1989 prodemocracy movement be reversed and highlighted the need for democratic accountability as a weapon against rampant corruption. The appeal was sent to President Jiang Zemin and Qiao Shi, chairman of the National People’s Congress. Among the signatories were Wang Ganchang, an inventor of China’s atomic bomb, and Wang Dan, a student leader of the 1989 prodemocracy movement. Excerpts from the petition appear below:

To welcome the UN Year of Tolerance, we should do our utmost to spread the spirit of tolerance, which is indispensable in modern civilization, and to promote the genuine implementation in China of the UN Charter-specified goal of “enhancing and encouraging the respect for the human rights and basic freedoms of the entire human race.”

Toward this end, we hope that the authorities:

1. 1. Will treat all views, including ideologies, political ideas, and religions, with the spirit of tolerance and will no longer consider them “hostile elements” because they have independent ideas and independent views nor oppress them, deal blows to them, keep them under surveillance or house arrest, or even arrest them.

2. 2. Will reassess the “June 4” incident with a realistic spirit and release those who are still in jail for their involvement in it.

3. 3. Will release all those being jailed for their ideas, views, remarks, and religions and will resolutely put a stop to the inglorious tradition of imprisoning authors for writing something considered offensive by the authorities, a tradition that has existed in China since ancient times. . . .

Encouraging tolerance, of course, never means keeping on good terms with everyone at the expense of the principle of distinguishing between right and wrong and good and bad. Still less does it mean indulging in or permitting vicious acts which corrupt morals and endanger society. Tolerance is closely bound up with such modern concepts as democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law, and they supplement one another. Tolerance should be a part of democratic politics. It is also a condition for political democratization. Tolerance is embodied in respect for human rights and freedom and is limited by moral norms and the law.

At present, decadent tendencies, the exchange between money and power, the embezzlement of public property, and corruption are found everywhere in China. All lawbreakers who bring disaster upon the country and the people must be eliminated and sternly punished without leniency. But it must be understood that without democratic supervision, particularly the supervision of independent public opinion, it is impossible to eradicate corruption. As early as 108 years ago, the British historian Lord Acton said: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The French “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” of 1789 is more plain when it says: “The ignorance, neglect, or disdain of the rights of man is the sole reason for public misfortune and dishonest government.” This eternal truth should become the consensus of opinion throughout China. Tolerance will certainly effectively push forward the anti-corruption drive, which is currently a concern of people across the country.

Uruguay

On 27 November 1994, Julio María Sanguinetti was elected president of Uruguay for a second five-year term. (He first served from 1985 to 1990.) Following are excerpts from his inaugural speech, delivered on March 1 in Montevideo to an audience that included eight South American presidents and delegations from 50 other countries:

We all know that we have entered into a new era of civilization; we are clearly in a new era for Latin America. We have entered into a new era for our region and for our country. We know that we have before us a world full of certainties, but at the same time a world full of uncertainties and mysteries. It is clear that we have left behind two centuries of grand political revolutions that began in 1789 in France and ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. We know that all of the attempts to displace political...