I think we are sadly evolving into a state of affairs where we can never rely on existing institutions like the Malaysian Bar or even the Human Rights Commission to take any real leads in forging our concerns on democracy.

The recent appointments of the chief justice and attorney-general are testaments to this. NGOs (or individuals using their NGO hats for legitimacy in allegedly representing sections of the population) are only capable of releasing press statements and doing the lecture circuit.

The entire legal fraternity's honour in upholding justice without fear and favour depends on a selected handful of individual lawyers to vent their concerns in the Bar journals or the press. Forget about locating leadership from the Bar in matters related to independence of the judiciary and a clean legal system.

Our Parliamentarians are merely irritating each other and the Speaker. Parliament is no longer the forum for real accountability to take place. Neither are the courts.

Suhakam is too concerned with arbitration (to make everybody happy all around) and loses sight of priorities that a rights commission is duty-bound to do - move agendas and rehabilitate the system.

We are back to square one, the political scene post-September 1998. What it says is that the government is never going to let up. It's going to tire all of us into submission.

Until and unless the rakyat develop that critical consciousness which will be moved into political action (and this is not the allegedly 2004 elections that going to 'save' our democracy) we will continue to face these debilitating scourges to the quality of our lives.