PAS through its disgruntled leader and former Terengganu menteri besar Abdul Hadi Awang has groaned in public to express their deep dissatisfaction over the results of the 11 th general election. They want fresh elections to be held as a result of the fiasco acknowledged even by the chairman of the Election Commission (EC) himself.

Malaysians have gone through the democratic process of previous general elections since 1957 to exercise their constitutional right in electing the parliamentary and state representatives of their choice. If my memory serves me correct, the past results of previous general elections have always been upheld despite the numerous post-election disputes brought up by some members of opposition parties.

I believe Malaysia is true democracy and the people's choice must be respected as the voice of the majority is more relevant and important than the minority political voice of PAS, which lost miserably in the 11 th general election. My advice to Hadi Awang is that his demand to call for fresh elections does not represent the majority voice of the electorate.

To a certain extent, the voting process of the 11 th general election had been marred by some discrepancies due to human or technical errors. These faults had nothing to do with the Barisan Nasional. The government that has been voted into power by the people should not be held accountable.

The nation has sworn in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as our fifth prime minister and it is widely expected that the new cabinet will be appointed and its ministers sworn into office at the latest by next Tuesday in time for their first maiden cabinet meeting to be held in Putrajaya on March 31.

State governments are also being formed, including the PAS-controlled government in Kelantan which has already been sworn into power. It is time to get on with our business to form the federal and state governments based on the strong mandate given by the people, despite some of the post-election issues which can be resolved by the government with the cooperation of the Election Commission.

I believe the people in general are more interested to know if indeed Pak Lah will now honour his word to deliver a clean and transparent government under his new mandate and leadership.