"Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"

- Winston S Churchill, Nov 11, 1947

COMMENT | Malaysia is in trouble because many key political leaders are still using the obsolete operating system (OS) of Nokia 3210 to operate an iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Recently, the Conference of Rulers and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah have pulled Malaysia back from the brink of a major disaster – the imposition of emergency rule. It’s time for all political leaders and the people to realise that no one should attempt to have total dominance over their coalition partners and the opposition, and no one should push their agenda to the point of no return.

All great democracies are not created through textbooks but a work-in-progress through political battles and their settlements. The Magna Carta in the 13th century was essentially a peace treaty between the king who needed tax money and his land-owing rebel barons.

The Bill of Rights 1689, arguably the basis of British parliamentary democracy, was also a peace settlement after a long series of conflicts. The modern party system in the British parliament grew out of fights at different stages of...