I refer to the Malaysiakini report By-election fatigue hits bloggers .

Bloggers and opinion makers hit by election fatigue should just sit back, relax, and enjoy the chaos, costs, and benefits of democracy. The information revealed by by-elections far outweighs the paltry cost of elections.

The opportunity costs are far greater if we have too few by-elections to give policy feedback on government corruption and wastes.

The cost of a 15,000-voter state seat by election is a lot less than RM1 million for the Election Commission. (The EC's reported budget for GE11 in 2004 was RM100 million. Probably more than half of this was eaten up by East Malaysian's rugged terrain. The remaining half was spent on about none million voters in West Malaysia for parliamentary and state elections.)

Penanti is one of the smaller state seats out of 576, and probably took up less than RM100,000 in 2004. A stand alone state by-election today would cost several times that, but not much more.

A by-election is expensive only for parties that intend to bribe everyone to gain votes. Such costs can pile up quickly as ‘instant noodle projects' rained down on Batang Ai, half-naked dancers turn off the woman voters, free concerts and festivals reign, and JKR works have to be rushed.

Some of these are indeed public funds, only because the governing coalition misuses public funds for partisan purposes.

As a Mafrel pointed out, police security costs can be cut down tremendously if nomination days are extended over several days so that supporters won't have to head off the other side in a few tense hours.

Campaign periods can be lengthened, television and media time can be given to opposition parties, and the EC should strictly enforce a no-campaign rule on election day. All these will ensure rally crowds are spread thinner, or stay at home to watch TV and listen to radio debates. Then police presence can be smaller and less costly.

As for distracting from managing the country? This is the excuse of ministers who can't formulate effective policies based on fairness and competence. Aren't the secretaries-general under each ministry supposed to be appointed on merit, and entrusted to run the ministries without loyally getting involved in by-elections?

A by-election is an effective ‘price-seeking' mechanism for a political system. From by-election results, we can infer the latest proxy ‘market price' or popularity of the policies of the government, without the risk of changing government.

It's like finding out the latest prices of our important assets, such as apartments, stocks and unit trusts in retirement accounts, or the price of ‘nasi lemak' and ‘roti canai' that the whole nation eats everyday.

What more important asset do we have than our country? For the country, who wants to settle for stale prices from 14 months ago, from GE12? Fresh ‘market prices' of the government, therefore, are especially important in Malaysia for three reasons:

1.The BN government has disallowed a no-confidence vote at the parliamentary level;

2. Our laws control information tightly, leaving the people (who are the ultimate and legitimate owner of such information) in the dark about government policies, contracts, and their impacts,

3. We lack frequent and broad opinion polls.

The opportunity cost of not revealing the ‘market price' of the BN government is mind-boggling, and apparently out of the grasp of some of our intellectuals who are more comfortable with control and order than the chaos and complex freedom of democracy.

A series of by-election losses can pressure the federal government to promote good governance, to become less wasteful and more open, just as weak share prices pressure boards of director and corporate executives to shape up, cut costs and produce more revenue.

By-elections are heaven-sent and not only for the locals catching ‘instant noodle projects.'

If the by-election feedback and pressure improves our economic efficiency by just one percent, it means RM2 billion of gains every year, narrowly based on our RM200 billion government budget.

Or gains of RM8 billion every year if broadly based on a GDP of RM800 billion. What's a million ringgit for by-election compared to RM8 billion?

If the BN government refuses to field a candidate in Penanti, it is not for the fear of costs. It's for the fear of information - feedback and pressure information.