What does a Government Do?

Have you ever wondered what a government does? In view of our state of the nation, we take many things for granted, and one which we rarely asked is what is the function and role of government. During my term as an interviewer with the Public Services Commission, this was my favourite question, but not exactly as I am asking now, but an open question, " What do you understand by the term 'Government'? " and surprisingly such a simple question was the most difficult to answer by the candidates. Many were confused between 'Government' and the political parties that form the government of the day. When candidates who have gone through formal education right up to tertiary level could not understand the demarcation, what more those who have not gone through any formal education at all. There are many reasons why this confusion arises, and one of which is due to lack of understanding of the term. The Concise Oxford dictionary defines government as" system of governing, form of organisation of State" and " body and successive bodies of persons governing a State". No wonder the confusion continues. A student of government would simply look at government as a system which is interrelated and performs the legitimate function of establishment of law and order and ensuring justice as well as the authority to govern.What's more important is it's accountability and transparency in the performance of it's functions. The process of arriving at the formation of a body or bodies that carry out the governance over the people is the most critical part which ensures that we deserve the government we choose. Thus in a parliamentary democracy we elect those who are supposed to represent us in Parliament which is one of the important barnch of government which is the law making body or the legislature.The quality of people who made up the Members of Parliament is of paramount importance, because they have to bring up matters which relate to their constituencies. But when party discipline is imposed, then that theory of representing the people takes a back seat. When a political party dominates the representation and place their political interest above the national interest or their constituency's interest, then the distortion of their role becomes prevalent. That's why we came across MP's who acted like fools and court jesters and treat the hallowed Dewan Rakyat as a stage for their antics. Hardly anything of importance to the very constituencies whom they are supposed to represent are raised. Thus it's a mockery of sorts whenever the Parliament sits and all the laws that are passed seldom gets debated intelligently and passed as a matter of convenience.If this most important role is not performed properly, how does the people who elected them get things done then. So in order to make their presence felt, they open up their so-called service centres. But of what use are such service centres, because we can always go to the respective departments to get what we want. The MP's or Wakil Rakyats too have to follow the law, because they are the representatives who passed them during the debate in Parliament or the State assemblies. They should be able to debate the Bills that are tabled before them as how the majority population be affected. If the law being passed is going to be an additional burden to the people, then they must voice out the concerns of their constituencies. But they hardly had any time to bring up to the attention of their constituencies on any law or enactments brought before them. So in the end we all get shortchanged, and these elected representatives concentrate on matters that do not bring much benefit to their particular constituencies. If this is how democracy works, then we have to think very hard, whether it's worth our time to go and vote for them. Just food for thought.