The Role of the Opposition 反对党的角色

Under a democratic system, the national parties are generally determined by the eligible voters to be the ruling and the opposition parties. When the results of the election are released, the party given the mandate to form the government is commonly referred to as the winner, whereas, the other party, the loser. This type of categorisation is quite inappropriate as it can easily cause pride to the so-called winner, but a defeated feeling upon the other party.

There are times we see a phenomenon that the members of the so-called losing party are trying to hop into the ruling party. For various reasons, they want to be with the ruling party rather than with their opposition party. They fail to see and be ready to play their role as the opposition.

In fact, under the democratic system, both the ruling and the opposition parties have distinguished roles for the good of the people and the nation as a whole. The opposition party should be happy and honoured to serve in a different capacity as compared to their counterpart, the ruling party. They are to critique the ruling party as and when necessary. The ruling party has to humble enough to pay attention to a different voice, failing to do so, they cannot have a wholistic knowledge of the need of their nation.

The ruling and the opposition parties are like the two hands of a person. If the person is right-handed, the ruling party is the right hand, and the opposition is the left hand. Although the right hand is more powerful and being used more obviously, the left hand is still vital, without which, the person is handicapped. And a democratic nation can be handicapped without the participation from the opposition party. Therefore, both the ruling party and opposition party are playing different and important roles within the nation that utilises democracy effectively.

在民主制度下，通常是透过选举来选出执政党和反对党。选举结果公布后，獲得组织政府的一方常常被稱为勝利者，而另一方则是失败者。这种分类其实不是很合适，因为它很容易引起所谓胜利者的骄傲，同时造成另一方的挫败感。

有时候我们还会看到一种现象，即所谓落败党的成员试图跳入执政党。由于种种原因，他们希望与执政党在一起，而不愿意留在自己的反对党。他们没有预備要好好地扮演反对党的角色。

事实上，在民主制度下，执政党和反对党对予人民和国家的整体利益具有重要的作用。反对党应该感到高兴和荣幸的扮演其角色，与执政党相比，他们有不同的影响。他们将在必要时对执政党进行批判。而执政党也必须谦虚地注意一种不同的声音，如果不这样做，他们就无法全面了解国家的需要。

执政党和反对党就像一个人的双手。如果这个人是右撇子，执政党便是右手，反对党则是左手。虽然右手比较强大，明显的出现在许多场合，然而左手仍然有不可忽略的功能。缺少了左手的人，他的身体就不那么完整和较難全面性發挥功能。一个民主国家没有反对党的参与，也会很困難及健全的得到發展。因此，执政党和反对党対於一个有效地应用民主制度的国家扮演着不同且重要的角色。

The ruling and opposition parties are like the two hands of a person.
執政和反対党如同一个人的双手。