PEOPLE’S VOICES VERSUS CONSTITUTIONS AND LAWS

The situation in Perak is becoming more interesting from day to day. Thanks to the show put up by both sides of politicians. They do create a lot of history for Perak. Now, Perak has another attractive tourism spot, “The Tree”. It is very hard to find another legislative meeting being held under a tree at any other countries. The Bota assemblyman’s name might also carved in the Malaysia Book of Records or perhaps in Guinness Book of Record for being the shortest period of hopping twice. Even the State Secretary suddenly has so big of say in disallowing DUN proceeding, police disallowing State Assemblymen/women from entering assembly meeting hall, misinterpret ting the word “sembah derhaka”, dragging the court of justices and police into the drama.

In my personal opinion, it is a time to evaluate whether the Constitution or the will of people is more important. The reasons for Constitution to be put in place are to guarantee the democracy is being upheld and the will of the people is being protected. The very basic of having election is to deliver the will of the people to the politicians and let the politicians to represent them in Parliament (in the case of Perak, State Assembly) and forming a ruling government. It is because most of the countries in this world are not able to follow the original democracy model that being brought up by Athens where all citizens have a direct say in the Assembly. So, the adaptation of the democracy model nowadays is by passing the power held by its voters to their representatives. Ethically, those representatives should not carry any personal power. Their power is being given by the people. So, each and every of the actions must be accountable to the people.

Back to the case of Perak, no matter what are the decisions of courts on a few pending cases, the final results are not important in terms of the meaning of democracy and people’s power. Even if the actions taken by politicians are legal in terms of Constitutions and law, but as long as it does not practise the original meaning of democracy, it will be useless at the end of the day. Even if all the government assemblyman/women hop to the opposition party and overthrow the current government, the new government still does not have the real mandate from the people. It is the same as ruining the model of democracy which uphold the voices of mass. It will be better if the politicians get a new mandate from the people once again whether the final decision is for or against you. At least, you will be respected as a gentleman and get blessing of the people.

I felt that all those dramas and circuses are nice to watch since it is free. But when we talk about state priority, we should go back to the very beginning why democracy is being upheld and why an election is being held. By then, we will realise that all the free dramas and circuses aren’t necessary.