The dominance of political parties today is mostly the result of electoral systems that allow the winners to exert greater dominance over who can rewrite the laws and even set electoral laws.

This means it’s beneficial for representatives to form larger blocks. One can only do that by compromising the message as they join greater blocks. This means representatives with strong principles are disadvantaged from the very start.

A Muslim who believes in Shariah law yet is more economically aligned to western trade policies is forced to either pick his/her religion or economic preference. This is unfortunate as the notion of maximising one’s choice is reduced significantly due to the current political structure which only provides oxygen to political parties while choking out independent candidates.

It’s time for us to reassess the whole political structure in Malaysia to enhance representation and accountability.

Independent candidates can bring attention to issues that are otherwise ignored, suppressed or misrepresented. This is due to the variety of issues which can be tabled together without the need to conform to one’s party structures.

In Malaysia, if an MP from Umno votes against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Parliament due to one’s conscience, the MP will have to face the party disciplinary board for defying the party stance. This unfortunately restricts the ability of our Members of Parliament from assessing national issues independent from the party’s goals which may not necessarily be aligned with the goals of a specific constituency.

Besides that, Independent candidates also have an ability to force major parties to accept their stance when significant popular support is gained. That means other parties are more likely to co-opt and promote otherwise ignored causes.

Eugene Victor ‘Gene’ Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World . He ran for US president five times and made sure his cause of progressive income tax was picked up by other candidates. This eventually became a reality.

In Malaysia voters who are not satisfied with the constricted binaries of politics will now be given more options to select independent candidates which may genuinely represent their true concerns.

Given our current predicament in Malaysia where a greater number of young voters are increasingly disillusioned with the political system; independent candidates can be our saving grace. One that is more willing to go greater distance in order to uphold principles that are not convenient but simply, right.

Empowering choice cannot be ignored

This can be said of Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, the Member of Parliament for the Sungai Siput constituency in Perak. He currently stands as the only MP from the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) in our Parliament. This might provide more room for socialists in Malaysia to breathe. A lot of us might disagree with the principles of socialism, however the notion of empowering choice in a democracy cannot be ignored.

Independent candidates are not means to an end but an end in and of itself. By championing causes that are often lost from public consciousness; they become moral agents of highest order. Often these are values that may not be populist. Often these are values that are critical of the way things are done in the country.

Imagine the current situation with Rohingyas in Myanmar; where Rohingya minorities have been violated in the worst fashion. The daughter of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, has failed to vocalise concerns against the massacres and none of the other political parties seem to care. A third force that champions the rohingya cause may not even win many seats in Myanmar but will be the world’s port to making changes in Myanmar and aiding the rohingyas.

It would be great simply because of the fact that they stand for the vulnerable and who is to say that all hope is lost. Maybe what many people need is a movement that questions their bigoted consciousness and helps them see what’s wrong inside the boundaries.

In a democracy, better leadership requires more than a zombie constituency. It means building networks to involve more people, especially those from the constituency. Usually third parties and Independent candidates work on that idea and enjoy considerable success at the local level.

They collectivise people and get them to discuss demands, policies and strategy which is a stark contrast from usual negative campaigning and subversion tactics employed by major parties against other parties. Third parties and Independent candidates use grassroots campaigning and even if they don’t receive much votes nationwide, the awareness they create at their respective constituencies is invaluable.

Success stories of fringe parties or independent candidates are abundant. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was the Socialists who popularised the women’s suffrage movement. They advocated for child labor laws in 1904 and, along with the Populist Party, introduced the notion of a 40-hour work week, which led to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

According to a 2008 Gallup poll, the majority of US adults, 58 percent, say a third US political party is needed because the Republican and Democratic parties “do such a poor job” representing the American people. Since 2007, a majority has typically urged a third force either being “Independent candidates” or a “third party”.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States who abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernised the economy. He was back then a third party candidate.

In Mark Twain's Autobiography, ‘The Character of Man’, he said, “Look at the tyranny of party - at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty - a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes - and which turns voters into cattles, slaves, rabbits...”

Democracy is not defined by political parties, instead it is defined by the people who vote those parties into power. If the current political structure which favours political parties undermines the very people who make up a democracy, it urges the overhaul of that very political structure.

SYED SADDIQ SYED ABDUL RAHMAN is a part-time lecturer at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) Malaysia and is Asia’s best debater, winning the United Asia Debate Championship in May 2015.