Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak says he doesn't have to give three months notice to call for a new general election. He is quite right because there is no constitutional provision for such a thing.

The question is, since Najib has been trying so hard to prove himself to be a rakyat-friendly prime minister, he should perhaps ask the rakyat whether they agree with this cloak-and-dagger convention of snap elections – in which the ruling party enjoys all the advantages.

Surely Najib wants to tell the world that we have the best democracy in the world whereas in actual fact our democracy and electoral process are nowhere near countries like Nepal, Costa Rica or Indonesia.

My point is that we should discard all the stealthy conventions of the Westminster system – like the prerogative of the ruling party to call for a new election at the time it suits them. And that time is usually after they have massaged the economy, crime figures, and foreign direct investment in a system where every agency is under government control.

We all know that there are a lot of unsavoury truths behind all these figures.I am great admirer of the system in the US (and many other countries including Iran) where every holder of public office including the president should leave after two four-year terms and can only seek re-election after a lapse of one term.

So the term of any elected government as well as election dates should be fixed and not be a prerogative of the ruling party. In fact, there should also be a system of recall when an elected party is found to be incompetent or corrupt after one or two years in power.
 
Only then can we avoid the old adage 'power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’. I wonder whether the Malaysian rakyat knows that the whole British system – be it democracy, electoral process or judiciary – is only practiced on a very selective basis in Malaysia to suit the BN government.

I won't even go into the issue of local governments, which in Britain form the very frontline of the delivery system of government policies and services. As for the judiciary, what happened to the concept of 'trial by your peers', which is the very core of the British judicial system until today?

Even sentencing for minor crimes has been rather draconian in this country, which often turns petty thieves into hardcore criminals. Thus Najib should start thinking outside the box if he really wants to bring about his ‘1Malaysia’ mumbo jumbo.

Why can't we have a general election, overseen by officials from mature democracies, during which political parties are not allowed to form alliances? Every constituency should be contested by all political parties and independent candidates under a proportional representation system.

I would love to see all the political horse-trading taking place after the seats are declared and allocated.
    
It may take sometime before a viable government is formed but who cares if we don't have a government for a short while because in the last 50 years it was the civil service that kept this country going.

Under the present BN coalition, the ministers are all ‘yes-men’ and allies of the presidents of Umno, MCA, and MIC. And these people are not necessarily the best brains to come up with the great ideas needed to transform our education, transportation and health systems.