Was the prime minister serious and sober in his statements about Al Gore and the US handling of the election process?

True, the US took more than a month to finally decide on their president elect. True, they have many flaws in their antiquated voting and vote-counting system.

But the Malaysian BN leaders must understand something about the US constitution. The sacred document agreed to and signed by their founding fathers 200 years ago goes out of its way to ensure there is limited fraud and abuse of the system. That is because it is based on the biblical premise that man is essentially sinful and left to himself, would tend toward evil.

The three branches of government, presidency, legislature and Supreme Court are meant to be independent and provide checks and balances on each other. The states are independent and have their own voting and ballot-counting laws. Even ballot-counting and voting forms are independently controlled and authorised at state and county levels as opposed to centralised federal government control because there is supposedly less chances for fraud and tampering.

No matter how screwed up the process was, it was great to see that the two candidates had their respective channels of appeals and they both respected the outcome of that process.

And no matter how much we may dislike American arrogance and criticise everything American, their constitution controls to a certain extent fraud and injustice.

I wonder what would have happened in our last general election in Malaysia if Barisan Alternatif had unseated the incumbent Barisan Nasional. Would there be a smooth and peaceful transfer of leadership? Somehow, I am not as optimistic...