With all the recent hoo-ha on abuse of powers and corruption, let us not forget the past as well. I dare say that a majority of the past and current MPs have in one way or another abused their position for monetary benefits. If MPs continue to be like a NPL (non-performing loan) and only focus on deepening their own pockets, then we should rename them 'My Projects' rather than members of parliament!

Why is there such a large number of unregistered voters (about four million)? Their reason would probably be, 'Why bother to vote when I'm just helping a person to get rich?' If voting is made mandatory, we will see a huge amount of spoilt votes because the one whom we want to elect is not on the list. If we were to vote, we would merely be choosing the best out of the worst.

I'm sure if we do some homework to research old news, there will be mention of Ling Liong Sik's son who amassed RM200 million worth of company shares through share swaps. Did anyone probe further on how he managed to finance this acquisition?

This I believe is just one of the many examples of `hot news' which will just fizzled out due to either intervention or a behind-the-scene settlement. Whatever it is, it is not known to the public. I feel that the press has a social obligation to follow up on these 'hot cases' to ensure that the fight against corruption is continuous. We do not want temporary excitement only for everything to be forgotten without an ending.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad is doing a good job now harping on issues deemed to be of national interest. One wonders why all the noise now after he has left office? Are there some personal interests in the scrapped mega-projects or is he really concerned about the well-being of the nation?

Dr M has left behind a legacy in elevating Malaysia to a high standard in terms of per capita income, infrastructure and so on. There's no doubt about his contribution to the nation. However, the wealth was not distributed in a fair manner with only a handful benefitting. I need no further clarification as the general public is well aware of this fact.

And kudos to our works minister who continues to dazzle us with his outstanding statements. If he can only try and understand the road users, we would all have well-planned highways. We wouldn't have flyovers in our backyard. We wouldn't need to stop at every entrance and exit of the highways to part with our hard-earned money. Ask any foreigner and they will agree that Malaysia has the most toll plazas in the world.

The argument is that the government will be burdened if they bear the cost of building highways. So the best solution is to privatise the project, and we're told it's a win-win situation whereby some company will be awarded the project, another company will hold the rights to collect the toll revenue and the government will get a share of the revenue.

But what happens when the company (a GLC) starts losing money? The government will then bail out the company, forgive the debts and mistakes of the directors and highlight other reasons for the public to accept.

What I have touched on is all based on news reports that we all read but so easily forget. Yes, everyone makes mistakes and it's only through mistakes that we learn and improve ourselves. But we should not give ourselves excuses every time for every problem. There must be solutions in the best interests of the 'rakyat'.