The present mess with the 'errant' MCA duo who abstained from voting on a DAP-led motion to defer the controversial Penang Outer Road Ring (Porr) project in the Penang State Assembly should be a wake-up call to voters in the next general election.

We have often heard that the voters get the government they deserved. The people of Penang are learning that painful lesson now. They saw it fit not to ensure that the state assembly had sufficient opposition members to look after their interests in the 1999 general election.

Without a strong opposition, the ruling powerful government can just ride roughshod over the governed, like what is happening now with the controversial Porr project. It appears that the government for its very own reason(s) wants the project to go on regardless of the voters' wishes.

The fiasco is also an eye-opener to the way Barisan Nasional functions. What the voters want can easily be cast aside; on the other hand, what the BN wants is more important. And what the BN wants, is what the voters ought to get and made to be grateful for. BN is telling the voters they cannot think for themselves and definitely are not aware of what is good for them.

So even if it is the most expensive highway per kilometre, even if it will bring hardship to residents and eventually highway toll-paying users, the project must go on. So even if there are state assemblypersons who are aware that their constituents are against the project, their function is to support the project and forget about what their constituents want.

One can only speculate why action is being taken against the duo for abstaining their votes when others who have done the same in the past have been left off the hook.

The Porr controversy is quite similar to the issue of using English as the medium of instruction for the teaching of Science and Mathematics in primary schools. BN's wish is the voters' 'command'.

Will the next general election see voters being more knowledgeable and wiser? Only time will tell.