MAY 4 — Elections are like a mirror that reflects the good and the bad sides of candidates as well as the weaknesses of humanity.

In the Untied States, to vie for the party’s nomination, a presidential candidate is known to have repeatedly made racist statements and remarks, not exactly a manifestation that befits a well developed democracy.

Republican candidate Donald Trump urged the government to impose a temporary freeze on all Muslims entering the US in the wake of intensified IS attacks. He felt it was absolutely necessary for Washington to establish a database of all Muslims in the country to facilitate monitoring.

Trump also proposed to erect walls across the country’s borders with Mexico to stem the unchecked flow of illegal migrants while repatriating over 11 million illegal migrants from that country.

As if that’s not enough, he even accused Mexico of bringing “rapists” into the States. He suggested that women carrying out abortions had to be punished, and that what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989 was a “riot”.

Despite strong protests from the public, Trump managed to enter the hotel where the party’s convention was held, through back door. All these said, his support rate is an impressive 40%, well above that of his two closest opponents, which will very likely see him officially endorsed as GOP’s man to face off with Hillary

Clinton in this year’s presidential election.

It is sad that if a candidate’s public support has been built upon his or her radical speeches. Unfortunately, this seems to be the mode of operation that has become increasingly dominant among democracies worldwide.

Elections have also been reduced to a power game of deception. In Taiwan, which prides itself as the most democratic and liberal regime in the Chinese world, democracy has been distorted beyond recognition.

Elections have become a tool of manipulating populism to win over voters, even to an extent as to engage in violent brawls in the legislative assembly, incapacitating policies and paralyzing government mechanisms.

Back home, the Sarawak state election has once again exposed the ugly and selfish faces of our own politicians. PKR/DAP have reneged on their accord to fight BN one-on-one as they opt to clash with each other in six constituencies. The same goes for BN direct candidates who find themselves confronting their party comrades in multi-cornered fights.

Pakatan Harapan has vowed to bring down the corrupt BN regime, but when it comes to a clash of interests, the lofty goal is instantly tossed far behind, as components think only of themselves and their individual chances of wrestling the power.

This is humanity in its crudest form. As for how to patch up the torn relationship, that’s what they need to look into only after May 7.

BN component and BN-friendly parties are not any better. SUPP and UPP, SPDP and TERAS, they all used to be one in the big family.

Elections should not be something evolving around empty promises, generous handouts, merciless assaults and irrelevant gimmicks.

All political parties have set their ultimate goals to wrestle the power from their rivals, failing to see that elections are actually a platform for them to seek public mandate.

Election should not be all about that one or two weeks of campaigning. It should have started the moment a party has been given the mandate to rule and the other party begins to perform its watchdog duty.

The ruling party should seek re-election with its own performance and policies while the opposition should come up with alternative policies to convince the public of their capability to rule. An election should be one where public appraisals are carried out throughout the four or five years of an administration.

Unfortunately, election is nothing more than just elections to many a politician, disregarding the laws and public consensus over the years only to put up a last-minute show to please the masses as the election looms in.

A deformed and retrogressive democracy is one in which political parties care only about elections and the public open their eyes to see only when an election draws nigh.

This dilemma is not unique to this country but the world over.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.