cakap cakap..being disrespectful to Tun?

When PMX speaks, I listen. You listen. The world listens. We hang on to his every sentence, every phrase, and even, every word. I know he speaks from his heart. I know he means to do what he says, but the line between power and the loss of it, today, is extremely fragile.

And that worries me, for without political power, we will be without our PMX - and that will not be good. Everything and anything happening in Malaysia today ...all roads, leads to PMX. That is how it has been in Malaysia for as long as I can remember.

And at times that is worrying.

Everybody takes their cue from PMX.

Today, the word from PMX is ZERO TOLERANCE for corruption. How reassuring is that! To have our leader stand up in Parliament and tell his ministers, tell the opposition, and have that message of ZERO TOLERANCE for corruption related, far and wide across the length and breadth of our nation - ZERO TOLERANCE for corruption!

You can not misunderstand PMX's intent. You cannot mistake his resolve. What we are now watching is for the doing of the intent and how strong PMX's resolve is, to make it all happen.

Late last night, an old friend called.

We speak to each other often about the state of our nation and about what our leaders are doing in the name of the government. We have agreed to disagree more often than we have agreed to agree on things political, but we have never allowed those disagreements to get in the way of our friendship.

For one, we have never been able to agree if the ISA or SOSMA is good, or bad for our nation. There have been other major fault lines between us, but his unwavering belief is that for Malaysia to succeed, political leadership must be in the hands of a strong despotic leader because Malaysians are not yet ready for anything else. He says we need another Mahathir.

I prefer to believe that Malaysians are ready for that one-person one-vote stuff - where voters decide who they want to lead them and meritocracy rules.

But we agreed, and we both want, PMX to succeed.

Last night, he started by asking me, "Why must Anwar put the Army on alert for possible unrest? Is it because he wants there to be some more arrests?"....alluding to the number of arrests that have happened in these last few days....and making his point that Anwar is doing what his predecessor has done when faced with any potential threats to their hold on political power: invoke the ISA or SOSMA.

It was late, I was tired and non-combative - so I listened.

He went on to say that racial, ethnic, and religious tension and extremism do not exist in Malaysia. It is just a figment of PMX's imagination, and PMX is using a non-existent threat to call out the army and prevent Tun from having that Malay Proclamation event.

I told him to read what I posted today on what he just told me.....and listened to him say, "Your post is very disrespectful towards Tun. Please stop denigrating him" with that, he said, "it's late...good night". Sweet and short.

Do you think my post has been disrespectful toward Tun?

I don't know myself because when I am writing about something that I care dearly about - race, religion, and extremism - and anybody who uses race, religion, and extremism for political gain...I just write without worrying too much if I was disrespectful to anyone or not...and in this instance, that someone happens to be Tun.

Anyway...that is food for thought for me. What do you think?