It has happened once too often for our political leaders, MCA president Dr Liong Sik included, to harness emotional support by gambling on the sudden 'declaration' of resignation.

All leaders can choose to determine true support by the democratic process of the secret ballot in an election. Yet most of the time, they choose to remove anyone who threatens their position of power or to stop anyone from challenging their posts by declaring no-contest ruling and other unfair decrees.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's surprise resignation announcement stunned the audience but we will never know if there were some who actually welcome it. How can his non-supporters voice their acceptance of his resignation amid a volatile crowd which may be only a minority of the whole assembly?

We should remove all the obstacles to the democractic process in all electoral contests and allow a fair and equitable system to return for the benefit of society.

If Mahathir truly wants to step down, he can always choose to step aside first, assume an advisory position and then step down. This need to done on an interim basis because he has consolidated too much power upon himself, and became indispensable (which a good leader will not do), and a sudden change of leadership may trigger damaging power struggle.

Had he nurtured a broad-base leadership and with a clear successor, then he need not step aside but just step down. But now, this is not the case. Strong second-liners were neutralised so there is now a vacuum.