Democracy isn't just about number

THE freshly-appointed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has to steadily focus on reinvigorating the national recovery plan that seems needing a constructive mend.

I personally expect and hope that the new Federal Cabinet will not be just competent and reliable in leadership, but also sensible in deciding on policies that won’t frustrate the people’s wellbeing.

It’s still subjective to gauge a minister’s performance, but clearly, as we learned from the past, a policy or enforcement set by ministers that confusingly complicates people’s daily activities can be made a performance indicator to visibly define their 'failure'.

The new government that will be officially captained by the former Rural Development minister must be seriously working towards the betterment of this beloved land whose people are in instant need of economic lifelines to strive the next days of their lives.

As decreed by His Majesty and The Rulers, the previous political conflicts must be erased so that every parliamentarian, be he electorally chosen or appointed, can be focused to work hand in hand to ensure that they can strongly, formidably and convincingly steer the already-planned and to-be-planned agendas without being faltered by any political moves that could not, in return, pour benefits to the needy Malaysians.

It’s time for the politicians to forget about their things of the past and be united to be indomitable against the rise of the pandemic.

I do believe that, with credibility and togetherness being the theme of the new leadership, we will surely be victorious in combating the COVID-19 as long as the antivaxs do no longer believe that vaccines contain an unseen chip that could secretly surveil their whereabouts.

As the new episode of the national leadership will begin soon, it’s highly hoped that the Parliament and its special select committees will be reliably functional with parliamentarians of both political sides collaboratively contributing their alternative ideas in support to the governmental agendas initiated by the executives.

Each ministry and minister has to be dedicatedly responsible to a parliamentary select committee, and every select committee chairman has to be given a democratic right to precisely discuss every matter that is related to the executions of the ministry.

The Article 43(3) of the Federal Constitution writes that the Cabinet Ministers are collectively responsible to the Parliament, and with it being constitutionally said, the functions of the select committees must be respectfully upheld that ministers must be responsible to the parliamentarians who preside and associate the select committees.

The government and opposition parliamentarians must be in a joint venture to ensure that the House of the Representatives can always be democratically healthy for its members to be participative as the voice of their constituents.

The parliamentarians, regardless of their political seniority and their standard of oratory, must work as ONE. 1 is the most significant number to define a unity, and unity is what we need in the present democracy.

Because democracy is not just about the number of supports. It should also be about uniting the differences towards making this country, that we all mutually love, great again.

Long live Malaysiaku!

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Amerul Azry Abdul Aziz is an independent writer who now views politics as something that can be researched.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.