In response to Kim Quek's letter, I sense a grave sense of desperation o­n the writer's part. Is he/she convinced that by voting for 'rights-based parties', Malaysians will see a better day (as compared to status quo)? Or is it a matter of making the best from, let's face it, bad and inadequate choices?

I regress a bit to look at the basic issue of whether political parties drive and shape people's decisions, or the other way round. The answer may favour the political parties, despite that people are being driven up the wall with the amount of mega-corruption cases that go uninvestigated and unpunished.

But yet it is the peoples' consent that allows such monstrosities to go unchallenged. In reality, power lies in the hand of the people, as even the worse dictators know well.

So instead of holding into a 'shopping' attitude to politics - reduced to just choosing the `right' party - people need to change the decision-making structures that can form the ground for the creation of new political entities to do the job expected of them.

In Malaysia, the system of people being represented by leaders of their 'own race' is a norm in political decision-making - sometimes euphemistically called 'muhibah'. You see this in all spheres of life, from bottom to the top, from private to public.

How much do these so-called 'ethnic leaders' represent Malaysians' aspirations when in most cases, these ethnic leaders o­nly lead by filling their own pockets? The system is definitely deficient in representing most Malaysians.

Malaysians will need to seriously shake off this fundamental 'racist' (or `ethnicist' to use another term) attitude to warrant the creation of any new political order. But how many Malaysians would bother to remedy the situation in their daily life?

Can we shake off the idea that we must be represented by those who share our ethnicity, but who are no more than tricksters and little mafia bosses? More importantly, how far did we choose a political system based o­n ethnicity?

Think again when you expect some security by voting in these 'ethnic leaders' - they can best secure your subservience and second class status!