Although it is true that, to a certain extent, someweaknesses of the opposition had contributed to its poor performance in the 2004 general election, it is even more evident that the uneven playing field and possible gerrymandering were the most critical and fundamental causes. These generally cover three areas.

Firstly, the integrity of the conduct of the general election by the Election Commission is now widely questionable, especially in Selangor. This issue must be investigated and if there is a need, a fresh general election should be called for to re-establish the moral legitimacy of our system of parliamentary democracy. Otherwise, many people would just treat the government and the system with moral contempt, albeit in private.

Secondly, the mainstream media has been playing the role of providing the ruling coalition with a lopsided forum for its self-glorification and the demonisation of the opposition. This is unfortunate as the majority of the people, particularly vernacularly-educated Malaysians, have no other alternative to the mainstream media.

Thirdly, the abuse of police and judicial powers to detain or disqualify opposition leaders from contesting in the general election has made a mockery of our so-called democratic system.

The widespread use of the methods of force and fraud to obtain votes for the ruling coalition and the attempts to prevent an effective and legitimate opposition are certainly not reflective of the 'First World mentality' so often advocated by PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

They instead resemble the crude, despicable and dishonourable means used by many crackpot tyrants of the Third World in the 1960s and 1970s.

I really cannot understand how the self-styled morally upright intellectuals like Chandra Muzaffar and Kassim Ahmad can accept such a Saddam-like con-job with a seemingly clear conscience and proclaim it to be inevitable. It is simply shameful, whatever academic jargon or statistics they use to justify it.