Democracy is all about the people. It’s a government by the people for the people. Our leaders are elected by us — hence if we get a bad leader, who do we blame? Non other than ourselves. However what happened in our parliament today made me wonder; which way should we vote in the next election?

Prior to March 2008, we seemed unhappy with the party that has been ruling since our independence some 52 years ago, so much so that we gave an unprecedented number of votes to the opposition which startled not only the ruling party but also the opposition. Many reasons were give by our political analysts, but whatever the reason is that was the voice of the people. We were frustrated with the corrupt and dirty system our pre-2008 government was managed. We were happy with the election results, we have shown our unhappiness, the Rakyat has shown its power. Or so we thought.

Now it is almost 15 months since our last general election. What have we seen? We’ve seen our leaders fighting for power like never before — the 16th September change of government which didn’t happen, the coup of Perak, the legal saga, the change of Mentri Besar of Perak on one day by court decision just to be reversed the following day, the non-stop by election and the list goes on and on. The fact that we are in one of the most challenging economic times the post World War 2 has ever seen seems oblivious to our leaders.

All these while we see and read about the billions of ringgit loss to cronies of the government through corrupt practices and we thought we need to change the government. So we gave one state to the opposition — Perak. Not long after that we read about two of the Perak Exco, now from the opposition, being charged with corruption — accepting sexual services for favours. And the cherry of the story is that these Excos equate adultery with giving charity. How preposterous! Only a few months in power and this what you do? Imagine after ruling for 50 years.

But all is not lost. We thought it was only the two of the lot — plus they are not leaders of the opposition. But today, today we saw one of the most cherished opposition leaders behaving like an immature child throwing tantrum in the most auspicious hall in the nation asking for power. Yes, you may say he didn’t ask for power, but in all fairness he wants to be made a Mentri Besar again through a re-election. I am not saying that I agree with the coup in Perak — I strongly oppose that and I strongly believe that the way it was done is unconstitutional (with due respect to the decision of the Court of Appeal and, of course pending the appeal to the Federal Court). However that is a state issue. Throwing tantrum by shouting in the Dewan Rakyat is not the solution. The power to dissolve the Perak’s state legislative assembly doesn’t lie in the Dewan Rakyat. What Nizar did was just a cheap stunt to get publicity. And it is disgraceful to the honourable hall and unbecoming of a leader, to say the least. On the one hand we have a party that will do anything to stay in power; on the other we have a party that is willing to do anything to get to power.

So now, which way do we go? We seem to be in a catch 22.