COMMENT The recent Economist Intelligence Unit index ranks Malaysia 65th out of 167 countries, placing it among the 'flawed democracies', perhaps an euphemism for 'floored democracies.'

As far as I have known, Malaysia, a country liberated from the British colonial yoke - before then, Malaya - has never been democratic in the pedantic sense of the word.

In reality the only thing democratic about Malaysia is its written Constitution that has been mangled over the years by amendments, and it is a blessing that the government that had a free hand in re-writing it for many decades now no longer has that power by controlling more than two-thirds of the country's parliamentary seats.

When has Malaysia been a land of the free in the absolute and true meaning of a democracy?

By EIU definition, a 'flawed democracy' sees free and fair elections and basic freedoms. But where are the free and fair elections? Elections, yes, but free and fair?