The Malaysian Insider

NOV 19 — Despite the deep political divides in the country being perfect for Machiavellian rule (Don’t you wish you could make a comeback Dr M?), not many will bet on the strength of the Najib administration or its longevity. He remains largely vulnerable.

It is difficult to pinpoint Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Achilles Heel, and in the blizzard of negatives directed at him one is more than likely to be distracted in the analysis.

I struggle aplenty in putting it in cogent thought but my uncouth summary would be he is not his own man.

NOV 12 — Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so. — Charles De Gaulle.

I am drawn to the French leader when I see the giveaway remarks by many of my countrymen in regards to the state we are in.

The typical “it’s too difficult”, “too far down” and “not in my lifetime” quips usually accompanied by the imageries of an apocalyptic end — horned horny devils humming in the background .

NOV 5 — They were three and it was unnerving but you just have to, you know. It was a late Raya open house and the crowd had ebbed away except for hardcore Umno men and this writer.

There were a few givens in what was to follow. I was not going to win any arguments, I just have to be content making them. There will be floor counts ever so often, and I’d lose all of them, of course. The people associated with me — and their ideas — are to be ripped apart, minced and then nuked for good measure. But I chose to stay the course.

OCT 29 — I won’t forget. “Boys, everyone in this class can become prime minister except Praba.” You think at 16 you have figured out how to be, well, bullet-proof but then these things happen to you.

Sorry teacher I missed the part in the national curriculum which insists all Fourth Form history teachers have to tell the only student in the class who is not constitutionally Malay that he has unstated limits — and better bloody well accept them.

OCT 22 — Occam’s Razor dictates that the time has come to shrink the Royal Malaysian Police (Polis Diraja Malaysia). Yeah, yeah, it seemingly flies in the face of the IGP’s contract extension for “excellent service” and the cry for a bigger police force to combat crime in the country. However the time has come to look at the obvious reasons why we feel less and less safe in Malaysia and cut off the benign tumour.

A police force has to be a means to an end, not an end in itself.

It cannot just exist because it wants to. It must exist because its customers need it, otherwise it becomes obsolete.