If you are running a business and you are serious about growing that business, one of the key ingredients is how to make the supplier or vendor work for you without having to scrutinise every single detail in the transaction and process required to achieve a quality supply.

You introduce competition because competition helps improve the supply in so many untold ways that may even surprise you. Most of us running a business or purchasing an item, or who are customers of a service, are at least vaguely aware of this basic economic principle of how competition exerts pressure on the efficient use of resources to produce a better product or service.

Strangely, or not so strangely, it can be applied to the political process as well. A tale of two or more suppliers can easily be translated to a tale of two or more political parties.

Interestingly enough, when we have the power to choose, we have power over suppliers or political parties. It appears to be true too, that during the time when our power peaks on May 9, we will be treated like honoured guests. Notice too, for example, it is the only period most of us are addressed as tuan or puan more times than we address the political leaders as such.

This power we hold for, unfortunately, only about two weeks is potent indeed.

We must use this great power to make a choice; otherwise when the power wanes and fades, most of us will be left with our little voices that can hardly move the gigantic government machinery to our benefit.

One of the reasons is perhaps because we are taken for granted. We are like soft furry lemmings obediently heading even to the edge of the cliff.

So what must we do? How do we extend our power beyond the two weeks of the election campaign? Fortunately, there is this idea: many leaders have talked about it and I would like to share it with you here.

This idea requires many furry lemmings to understand it and put the power into action. Only then will the power return to the people for a lot longer than just two weeks.

Simply, we change the vendor or the current political party ruling the government or the states. All things considered equal, at the whiff of questionable conduct or suspicion of underhanded tactics or even underperformance, like a purebred business venture, the rational decision is to change.

If all of us understand this simple concept, which works so well for business and competition, it will open up the kind of control, check and balance, transparency and accountability for which most of us have been crying and whining for years.

Imagine, with such an attitude, poor transparency and accountability, abuse, corruption, decay, bad practices, favouritism, cronyism, poor performance etc cannot last for more than one term, and leaders cannot get away with it, because as soon as the people catch a hint of something going awry, the power of the people will ensure the competing political party is called in to govern and all that has rotted will be rectified.

The result is that the political parties will begin to serve the people, as they are supposed to do.