Rumours are afoot that the general elections will be held later this year. Recent events have also added credence to the feeling of an impending general election. The civil servants, where support for the government is utmost received their more than justified pay rise, the local stock exchange is also active, making investors happy.

If and when the next general election finally arrives, I hope my fellow Malaysians will take stock of the performance record of their MPs and state assemblypersons since they were last elected to office.

Though debates in Parliament are not broadcast live over TV for reasons best known to the powers-that-be, one can view video clips of our 'honourable' MPs in action on Youtube and judge for ourselves. The recent 'bocor' episode is there for all to view and judge the misbehaviour of the

protagonists.

Generally, the majority of our MPs, whether they are from the ruling party or opposition, have earned their keep in Parliament. However, some were in the limelight for the wrong reasons.

Last year, an MP made insensitive remarks touching on another fellow MP's physical condition, and more recently the same MP made a sexist remark against a woman MP as if it was a joke, not knowing how crass it was. Then there is another MP whose company breached the law on numerous occasions and he had the audacity to confront officers of a government department and

demanding that they 'close one eye' over his infringements.

These are the ones their respective constituents must carefully decide whether they deserve to be their MP again even if they are re-nominated to stand as candidates despite their abhorrent behaviour and actions during their term as an elected representative of the people.

For me, I would like our Parliament to be a place where issues are debated coherently and not trivialised by MPs who behaves like imbeciles thus justifying their lack of knowledge and understanding of the issue in hand.

Compare our Parliament to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, we are certainly not world class but that does not mean we cannot strive towards achieving it. To do so, we must have candidates who possesses integrity, articulate and erudite elected to office, then perhaps we will have ourselves a world-class legislature.