THE parliamentary by-elections in Rompin and Permatang Pauh have ended and the people have chosen their representatives. That is our democratic way.

I am optimistic by nature and I would like to think that we have chosen the right people to represent us in the august house that is the Parliament. People love leaders who show honesty and integrity, act with courage in taking decisions, fight for the rights of the people and have a vision for the future.

Whenever such a leader takes charge, development takes its rightful place, but in the absence of such creative and popular leadership, growth suffers and progress is reversed. I hope we have chosen well.

A democratic system of government such as ours offers citizens choices. For the benefit of the younger ones among us, democracies fall into two basic categories — direct and representative.

In a direct democracy, all citizens, without the intermediary of elected or appointed officials, can participate in making public decisions. Such a system is clearly only practical with relatively small numbers of people — in a community organisation for example, or the local unit of a workers’ union, where members can meet in a single room to discuss issues and arrive at decisions by consensus or majority vote.

In Malaysia, we practise representative democracy, where citizens elect officials to make political decisions, formulate laws and administer programmes for the public good in the name of the people. These elected representatives can then deliberate on complex public issues in a thoughtful and systematic manner that requires an investment of time and energy that is often impractical for the vast majority of private citizens.

In our system of proportional representation, each political party is represented in the legislature according to its percentage of the total vote nationwide. Whatever the method used, public officials in a representative democracy hold office in the name of the people and remain accountable to the people for their actions, and I firmly believe that the fundamentals of democracy, with its aim of continuous empowerment of the people, are a good system. As Mahatma Gandhi once remarked, “Democracy, disciplined and enlightened, is the finest thing in the world.”

I would like to think that by our choices, we are empowering our youth to join us to contribute to the development of our cherished nation.

You see, Malaysian youth are our future. There is a need for us to ignite the minds of the youth to dedicate themselves to the nation and contribute their best to bring a change in thinking that will make Malaysia a truly developed nation.

Vision 2020 has an end date, and we are near the end. So, after 2020, what? With their innovative and creative minds and out-of-the-box thinking, I strongly believe our youth can lead this nation further up among the league of nations by integrating their current performance with excellence, without diluting the democratic fabric of Malaysia, and strengthening the pillars of future development.

But we must give them a chance to do so — we need to open up doors so that they may learn and then lead. Until then, we are stuck with the leaders we have chosen in the last general election in 2013. By-elections are but necessary aberrations, but they provide us with an avenue to introduce new, maybe even younger, leaders into the system.

In the heat of an election campaign, parties will try to score points against each other; it will be politics as usual, so to speak. What many would have forgotten a week after the election are the promises and sweet nothings that are cajoling tools of the politicians — when in fact, these are promissory notes with which we have to hold them accountable to.

These promises — manifestos, to give it its proper name — are serious matters. Manifestos are usually prepared for elections and help citizens understand what every party promises to do if it comes to power. Politics is serious business!

I think the time has come for us to be clear about what we can rightly expect from our leaders, our parliamentarians.

For one, we must expect of them ownership and accountability for these manifestos. Whether they have been elected to the state assemblies or the Dewan Rakyat, they must try their best to do what they have promised. It is the least they can do.

Next, we must push our representatives to establish a “Parliament with vision”, one that has the big picture in mind and can rise above petty party politics. Every member of Parliament should think that the nation is bigger than the individual and the party.

Only then can the clownish shenanigans of some of our representatives be pushed to a minimum. And only then can Abraham Lincoln’s “government of the people, by the people and for the people” operate optimally.

And lastly, we expect our elected representatives to display wit and intelligence in their role as leaders and statesmen. In Parliament, for instance, before passing any bill, serious and focused discussion is essential. Proposals by representatives, even if they are in the opposition, should be considered on their merit.

A conducive atmosphere has to be created to welcome out-of-the-box ideas, making it a truly inclusive Parliament. It is not enough to just talk about inclusive development; we need to practise it as well.

Some may say this is wishful thinking, but I believe our Parliament should pass a resolution to work on a “Vision for the Nation”. By Parliament, I do not mean the ruling dispensation alone, but all its members.

I long to see Malaysia evolve into a fair and just nation that is capable of nurturing its citizens to become a world-leading people, proud of their homeland and their contributions to the world at large.

During the almost six decades of our parliamentary democracy, it is the political leadership that has made this nation great through its visionary policies. History has shown us that every leader and every political party in Malaysia has made a contribution through their policies and programmes and by enacting appropriate laws to keep up the tempo of development of the nation. The contributions range from agriculture to science and technology and education, so that Malaysia can be on a par with any nation in the world.

Today, unfortunately, we are witnessing not only a leadership crisis but also a lack of emergence of creative leadership. Anyone can become the leader of a political party, and perhaps be elected to Parliament, but the aspiring ones should think:

We hope every aspiring politician will ponder the above issues, and if they deem themselves willing and able, we the loving people of Malaysia welcome them.

Zakie Shariff is CEO of a state-owned government-linked investment company and co-founder of hCap Associates, a talent search company

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.