I refer to the letter by Henry in which he defends the issue of MP's voting according to their conscience. Once again we find a Malaysian who trots out the same hoary old excuse as I now quote: 'Malaysia is not yet in the same developed stage as the UK in terms of parliamentary democracy'.

Indeed, this is certainly the case and yet this excuse has so often been used over such a long period of time by so many people (particularly politicians themselves) that one wonders whether anything will ever be done about it. Certainly the UK's democratic system took many years to develop but this was because it was the first and took a long time to mature.

But now the model of a good and accountable parliamentary democracy is out there for all to see and Malaysia can easily take a short cut because the rules and guidelines are all clearly now in place. In case Henry does not know what constitutes a parliamentary democracy I will set some of the basic ingredients for him to see:

  • Freedom of the press.

  • Freedom of speech.

  • Secret ballot.

  • One person one vote.

  • Independence of the judiciary.

    • Now, of all these, Malaysia only has the fourth one (one person one vote) in place. All the others are woefully lacking with the press hamstrung, no effective freedom of speech on pain of ISA, no secret ballot and certainly little or no independence of the judiciary.

    When the day comes that the government of Malaysia genuinely and rigorously enforces these rules of democracy, then things will improve dramatically. Until then we will be constantly inflicted by MPs that work only for themselves (not for their people) and a completely impoverished and corrupt system of administration and government.