Is your rep a mere drain inspector?

PARLIAMENT: Where MPs should be spending more time

Do you want your elected representatives to look after your drains or use his/her brains for policy-making?

I, as a ratepayer, would like my MP to spend more of his/her intellectual energy to make laws and debate real issues in Parliament.

In a more ideal world, my MP or state assemblyman does not need to get down and dirty and clean up the streets.

That job is for the local authorities and departments specifically tasked with such issues.

The sight of MPs often in the media inspecting and pointing at drains does not inspire my confidence in the direction our lawmakers are taking the nation.

During the popularity race this 13th General Election, I would sometimes ask campaigning candidate what law, exactly, does he/she feel should be introduced or amended: Almost all of them I have spoken to lately would look stumped at this question.

In any case, I don't think we should all point fingers at our politicians for neglecting an essential part of nation building, and look at ourselves too.

One of the main motivation for politicians to do all they do is to win votes.

And they'd be 'politically right' in choosing to talk about drains. A recent study by the UM Centre of Democracy & Election (UMCEDEL) found that being “friendly and [able to] solve the problems of the rakyat” is the number one criteria for the rakyat in choosing their representative.

Both the people and the politicians are to blame if all the elected representative talks about is micro issues, when lawmaking is equally, if not more, important. This was what political analyst Ibrahim Suffian said.

“While the Malaysian public generally understand that politicians are policy makers, they expect them to address all local issues, big and small. More people need to begin to understand that the candidates they choose ought to debate important issues, bring up something higher and not be so fixated on giving out goodies every weekend,” said Ibrahim.

Ibrahim also said, and I agree with him, that local government elections would help.

The local authority is the "first layer of government service", and when it fails to deliver, you can't blame the rakyat to expect the YB to do everything from A-Z.

But to do all this, a process of education is needed.

I like how a politician admitted that it was now largely a more mature audience and rakyat that is pushing politicians to act more maturely.

And so for our politicians to stop just showing their smiling faces only during elections and thinking they deserve to be patted in the back for giving out taxpayers money-- we need the people to start asking for it.

Perhaps there should be a balance, as a YB who totally brushes off a voter who needs help-- saying his/her job is only policies-- is just looking for trouble.

Former Selangor speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim honestly admitted that politicians and the public are not interested in talking about big laws and policies.

“People are more concerned with other issues, so naturally the candidates and politicians will have to talk about those issues that most people are interested in,” the DAP politician said.

He claims that Pakatan Rakyat has a big solution by talking about reforming the way the legislative, executive and judiciary operates.

Teng said that one thing that Pakatan Rakyat Selangor is proposing is to restore the independence of the legislative, both at state and federal level.

Malaysia is supposed to operate under the doctrine of the separation of powers where there is a division of executive, legislative and judicial powers between the branches of government.

While I don't claim to know everything about how a good government should operate, I am sure many Malaysians would roll their eyes with my when we see MPs arguing about petty matters and politicking in the 'zoo' that is Parliament.

So who do we depend on to fix our drains? Perhaps we should start using our brains and force ourselves to start asking for better politicians and better drains that won't need constant fixing.