When growing up, I learnt what living in a democracy is all about. I learned that in a democracy, the government is elected by the majority of the people. The government will serve and protect the people and look after their welfare and interests. The constitution is supposed to provide the parameters and define the power of the government.

I learned that in a democracy, there is separation of power to minimise power abuse and corruption because we subscribe to the maxim that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I learned that there are different institutions of government and each is given specific responsibilities to ensure checks and balances.

I learned that in a democracy, the fundamental liberty and freedom of the people are guaranteed and rules of law respected to ensure that justice and equity prevail in the society.

I also learned that members of Parliament are people’s representatives whose primary role is to protect public interests and to speak on behalf of the people, particularly the voiceless and the marginalised groups. Leaders in a democracy are expected to be transparent, responsive and accountable because they are popularly elected by the people.

Now growing old, I find that in many aspects, the democracy I live in is just a farce.

I find out that minority could actually form the government. All they need to do is to tweak the constituencies, making the representation lopsided and disproportionate.    

Despite elected MPs sitting in the August House in their three-piece suits, they do not speak for the people. Very much on the contrary, they speak on behalf of the vested or parochial interest groups.  Worse still, they are there not to provide checks to the executive branch, but to legitimise and prop up corrupted or incompetent leaders for their own selfish ends.  

They talk hauntingly on the grandeur stuff, but ignore the elephant in the room. Their hypocrisy is just shameless and stifling.

Sometimes have we not seen the various institutions of government ganging up to subvert the very democracy they have sworn to protect? Hence it is not uncommon to see one institution justifying and covering for another.

Instead of finding the truth, they help each other to perpetuate the lie. Instead of furthering the cause of democracy and openness, they promote opaqueness and reinforce oppression and tyranny. Instead of rule of law, it has become rule by law. And even in rule by law, we have implemented it selectively.

Do we see leaders accounting to the people?

Many say in a democracy, leaders must account to the people because we have freedom of information and leaders must seek new mandate periodically. But do we really see leaders accounting and reporting to the people? Have they not lived in luxury, mesmerised in opulent lifestyles, blatantly lied, and indisputably indulged in corruption and gross inefficiency?

Have we not seen that despite all these abuses and baloney, many are still praising them sky-high and lining up to kiss their hands?

And what about the constitution, does it provide us with enough safeguard as a democracy? Have we given it the respect and reverence it deserves? Or have we been amending it or giving it a skewed interpretation as and when it suits our short-term expediency? Since when is our federal constitution not sufficiently and manifestly clear that it is a Westminster democracy based on secularism?

Where and how did all the concoctions and moronic interpretations by certain quarters come from?   

We are a nation that prides itself to be in the threshold of ‘developed nation’ status. A developed nation by any layperson’s definition should encompass aspects beyond income and material wellbeing. Civility and our desire to live in a democratic society free from arbitrariness, corruption and bigotry is certainly one of them. We need to ask, do we still live in a Westminster democracy?