In two days we will be witnessing the changing of the guard: Goodbye Dr Mahathir, Hello Pak Lah.

In his 22 years of looking after us, Dr Mahathir has no doubt brought us plenty; economic growth, better standards of living, plenty of the tallest of this, largest of that and the longest of this and that to look at, and of course getting Malaysia better known throughout the world, at times for the right reasons and at times not so.

We have a PM who has been the champion of the downtrodden of the world but also a PM who has been too busy to really spend more time to look after the downtrodden ones in Malaysia. Like all things, along with the goodies, the not so good and even the bad came along. The past two decades have seen Malaysia filled with more 'CCN'; that is, corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

There has being a cutback on our democratic spaces and human rights have been further curbed. We have had mega projects which have brought little good to the man/woman-on-the-street, they are really too many to name. Some of these mega projects have yet to be constructed like the Bakun project, the Broga incinerator and the famous Penang Outer Ring Road .

So with the change of guard, could we have a wish list for the incoming PM, join me in making up this wish list. For starters, Pak Lah, could we have the following appetizers:

  • Less of top down governance: the less of 'PM-knows-best', you will be surprised how well we can think for ourselves when given the opportunity

  • More democratic space: let us repeal those various repressive and obnoxious laws like the Internal Security Act, Official Secrets' Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, University and University Colleges Act, etc

  • Let us have local council elections back again: you must agree with the soon-to-retire PM that the image of the government has been tarnished by the acts of some of these appointed councillors. Good governance starts at the local council level, and elected ones, you must agree, function better than those appointed, as they will have to answer to the voters when the time comes.

  • Don't bully the Election Commission: return the EC its independence

  • Let us keep Malaysia secular for all times.

    • Pak Lah, the list is not by any means exhaustive. In the coming days of your premiership, we will bring you up-to-date with the list, and it will go on. Meanwhile, allow us to bid you a warm welcome on November 1. We hope that your premiership will have plain sailing and we will benefit by having more of the goodies and less of the not-so-good goodies.