The governance of our public systems lacks transparency, accountability and justice. It may be seen as a variation of the example of three monkeys you can't see evil because there is no transparency; you can't hear of evil because there is no accountability, and you can't speak of evil despite injustice because the ISA hangs over your head.

Examples of non-transparency are the Dr Edmund Terence Gomez case , the entrance criteria to universities, selection of public officers for promotion, etc. They have been non-transparent because they cannot be justified.

The debacle and consequential public outcry over the selection of university undergraduates last year was a glaring model of opaque evasiveness. When the selection criteria were challenged, the people responsible for the selection changed the goal posts for the unsuccessful candidates.

Silly policies, made on the panicked run, like requiring a medical school applicant to demonstrate that they could tolerate blood and gore, were brazenly proposed by interested parties. All had one objective - to retain the non-transparency of the selection process. The selection criteria has now been amended, with an added obstacle for some university applicants to surmount, if they can - that of the subjective nature of interview assessments.

As for accountability, that word hasn't existed in public governance since the last federal minister, under the Tunku Abdul Rahman cabinet, resigned under accusations of impropriety, substantiated in court, by the late DR Seenivasagam.

Nowadays we see public works such as roads, hospitals and buildings, even that of Parliament House itself, breaking down like Humpty Dumpty, and all we get in terms of accountability is the King's men putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Those responsible for the shoddy work needed only to submit a 'confidential' (therefore non-transparent and non-accountable) report to the captain of the ship, and we have eight bells and all's well!

We witnessed the disgraceful state the Royal Malaysian Police has sunken down to. Yet, with a Royal Commission that came out with 125 recommendations , we haven't heard of any of its past and current leader being held to account.

We are instead thrown a tidbit of the RM34 million man to titillate our curiosity. An organisation like that doesn't become so corrupt overnight, so what have its leaders been doing - or not doing - over the years?

The sorry story of Malaysia seems to be that no senior officer in public office needs ever fear he will be held accountable at all, unless of course, his superior officer dislikes him. What then is there to fear so long as he ensures his superior is pleased with him?

The converse is true. We know of the courageous fire officer who raised the improper use of public resources by his superior for a private function, and who had gotten the boot. We know of officers who dared to tell the emperor of his naked state, and consequently been bypassed for promotion.

On justice, when we hear about the 'towering this and that', it straightaway excludes many Malaysians in the most hurtful manner, for the excluded realise that they aren't equal citizens. Is that a just standard for a Malaysia about to celebrate its half century as a nation? Be that as it may, there are worse examples of injustice.

The average person struggling to purchase his first house has to pay the full amount while a multi-millionaire gets a discount, solely on the basis of ethnicity. Wait, it's not only the full amount the more needy person has to stump out, but the additional unseen and painful subsidy for the discount the richer buyer enjoys.

The housing estate developers are hardly likely to absorb the cost of the discounts. In short, the poorer man subsidises the richer person. Now, is that just?

Affirmative action is not necessarily for the needy as many poor Indians can testify. The well-off sponge on these perks without shame, for their avaricious partaking of the cake has been officially approved.

Democracy is not only about elections. It is also about transparency, accountability and justice. If these are missing then the democracy that we acclaim to the world we enjoy is one that is shamefully hollow.