In Resurrect local council elections , Praba Ganesan amuses me as another wide-eyed Malaysian still wondering why we cannot do as the Romans do.

Doesn't he realise that Government by the people for the people is an alien concept to the present powers that be here?

Dear Praba, this has been a government of certain people who claimed to be a multiracial group looking after everyones interest but are in reality quite partisan in characteristics. They have made it law that their party deliberations and decisions can no longer be challenged in court. And you thought the Constitution was supreme.

Does this government work for the people based on merit and objective measures of need?

Does this government consist at every level of executive power, parliament, state and local government, of citizens elected from constituencies with approximately similar numbers of electorate?

Can we consider our elections fair when contestants do not have equal access to the media that is largely controlled by political parties?

The mandatory limit on campaign funds is a joke because no one keeps to it. The new election bill has raised the potential candidates deposit to a level similar to the per-capita GDP to discourage the less well-to-do from running for election. Is this a government by the people?

Yet we get the government we deserve.This government espouses the 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours', 'don't rock the boat' and dont be too smart and get yourself into trouble' type of mentality. This is the dominant behaviour that moulds the more affluent and middle class, especially the Chinese Malaysian. Who knows for sure how this will shape our society as sociological research is either not done or not made public.

Will we avert civil strife as we work so hard to preserve the things that divide us while being swathed in a nice warm touchy-feely glow of muhibbah and rhetoric?

When will the first steps be taken to break down the real barriers keeping us — lets not deny they exist — apart? This is a disease without a name, a malaise that is the root of all ills in Malaysia.