Now that parliamentarians are going to be given a 10% increase in their remuneration, the role of our elected representatives has suddenly become media focus.

As one letter writer to malaysiakini puts it, he wants to get his money's worth. He is a taxpayer who pays for the increase in MP allowance. As a towkay, whenever employees ask for a raise, he wants to know the justification for such a demand. For a start, he wants the parliamentary proceedings to be televised live, so at least the voters will know what goes on inside that august chamber sitting a stone's throw away from Kuala Lumpur city centre.

This view of our legislators is a common one among Malaysians.

Perhaps, living and working in our capitalist market economy for so long has conditioned many citizens to consider every human relationship as that of a commercial exchange, including that between legislators and the electorate at large.

Nevertheless, the metaphor of the business world as applied to the political domain cannot be pushed too far, without incurring the risk of reducing politics to a mere business venture. Members of Parliament are not there for their remuneration principally � at least they ought not be so. Their function is surely more than that of employees working for a boss.