By definition, 'democracy' is: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

The definition above merely outlines what a democracy is. But why should we waste our time having a democracy in the first place?

If we are merely following the actions of a democratic society without understanding it, then really, should we bother to continue?

We need to understand that democracy is not just about our rights to do this, or to say that, or to show dissent whenever called to do it.

This is the problem in Malaysia. We all know that we are supposed to have liberal rights, but few of us bother to acknowledge why those rights were given to us in the first place.

Our rights are there for nothing more than allowing us to question our elected representatives at every step of the way, making sure they are able to carry out their jobs.

Mind you, this is no simple job. It does involve a whole lot of other people. So choosing well is important.

We need to abandon this 'party loyalty' idea. A party is just a party. Be thankful for what it once stood for, and for what it has done for us or the nation, but please, be merciful and let it die should it become dysfunctional.

Please tell me how democracy is supposed to work if we keep forgiving our leaders for their mistakes, however little they are? If they are unable to learn, and keep making more mistakes, then they really do need to go.

Democracy is truly a great tool for weeding out the weak and incompetent so that each new leader, be it a person or party, will learn something from the last.

Leadership needs to evolve to remain competitive, and democracy can do that for us.

A good government needs to not only run smoothly, but have defences in place to show us, confidently, that they are in control of problems before they even happen. We can't afford to always firefight issues that come up.

We need leaders with enough foresight to plan robust processes that can withstand attack after attack from their detractors. And don't think there won't be many attacks, as the opposition is something you will always need to be aware of in a democracy.

However, please bare in mind that the opposition is never the enemy, merely an auditor. Our auditor.

Leaders should never point the finger at an auditor for bringing up dirt. They must answer for it, or learn how to solve it so it can always be addressed in the future. Audits are never a bad thing as it helps you see loopholes and risks in your processes.

A government that can be proven corrupt and a government that cannot be proven innocent are the same in a democracy, as they are both weak. Both will need to learn.

The lacking of morals in one is just mirrored by the lack of foresight in the other.

They will fail the opposition's auditing, as the opposition does it for nobody but the people, and the people are the ones to vote you in.

Democracy is a tool for the evolution of societies. Cruel as it may sound, it's about allowing survival of the fittest to take place so that our leaders will always be of top quality and will always improve.

If you gather that nothing can be improved, or think that there is always someone else to do that job for you, then for sure you won't mind when those democratic liberal rights mentioned earlier get stifled now, would you? I mean, what good would it do to have them?

But come on now, that's as good as saying you would rather be in a dictatorship. Oh wait, I guess that just about explains our situation then.