With the dissolution of Parliament, the race to be elected in the 11th general election has begun.

After weeks of speculation, the time has finally come for all those aspiring politicians. Whether they get nominated or not by their respective parties is left to be seen.

I guess their party leaders would exercise good judgment in nominating those whom they know are capable and interested in getting the job done as the people's representatives.

Many a time, we have seen inept politicians getting elected because of the good name of their party. Let's hope that this time round, those who get nominated to run for office are the ones who have worked hard over the years at grassroots level to bring about a change in the living standard of the people and the welfare of the country.

Those who only wake up during polls and apple polishers should not be considered at all by the parties. We need quality representation in both the parliament and state assemblies.

What I want to see in my representative is a person who dares speak his or her mind without fear or favour. Sadly, this was "missing" in the last parliament when certain personalities were not elected. Instead, we have some MPs whose thinking is so conservative and narrow that as the country march towards being a developed nation by 2020, they would say we are following the path of the infidels.

As in all general election in the past, we are bound to read about certain politicians defecting from one party to another. Well, what can we say about these group of people?

Some may argue that these politicians have finally come to their senses and joined the right party. I have no argument with that. What I am concerned about are those elected representatives who jump from one party to another. I find this repugnant. They have no sense of loyalty to their own party and the people who voted for them.

An appropriate way to discourage such acts is to have a law that whenever an elected representative jumps from one party to another they must tender their resignation and stand for election again. Then only will we know whether their actions are approved by the electorate.