Day 11

It is sad to watch politicans put on a show on grounds of serving the community when the visit to a home was less than 20 minutes while the host waited for half an hour. more so, when the entourage was simply standing around, not talking to any of the residents. when the first thing you hear was, "are these people registered voters? we can bring them to voting centre on that day..."

The host probably prepared the whole morning for the visit. the residents are likely to be anticipating the visit with all the excitement going on, especially when visitors are scarce and seldom. the efforts put in to clean the home and make it presentable; to prepare drinks and refreshments for the guests and putting on proper clothes for the occassion. all for a 20-minute visit, comprising shaking of hands, un-genuine smiles and small talk with the caretaker, pledging to help in any way possible after taking over office. this is probably the first and last time that the residents would see the group again.

But then again, politicians are politicians. As columnist Thomas Sowell put it: "In politics, the truth is strictly optional and that also seems to be true in parts of the media".

What is the role of a Member Parliament? someone who only focuses on community problems ie. traffic woes, street potholes, flood and cleanliness? or someone who would raise national doubts and issues so that the institution could brainstorm, leading to policies that would contribute to the society's development? would not issues of inflation, economic competitiveness, social disparity, corruption and inefficiencies be of greater concern than ensuring that the drains are not clogged?

I was listening to the radio today and the above was the discussion. a caller to the radio station said the MPs had a greater role to play than just concentrating on residential complaints, as these problems could be resolved at the local council and state level instead of at national. if they were not, then the question is, how efficient and effective are the local authorities? also, the caller pointed out that society also has to grow in maturity to realise that their MPs needed to play a bigger role than just resolving their daily frustrations. if they would not raise the expectations, the elected candidates would only end up being mediocre. as my friends would say, "when you pay peanuts, you will most likely get monkeys ..."

I thought those were pretty valid and vital questions. have i set the bar high enough so that the person representing me in Parliament would play his role accordingly? what kind of characteristics should i look for in MP? in the next five years, what do i expect the candidate to achieve?