It would seem to be a clear case of sedition when a political butterfly dressed up in hornet's armour tried to revive the ghost of May 13 in the recent Umno general assembly, to the thunderous applause of all those present.

Speeches during Umno general assemblies are more likely to be carefully orchestrated representations of their mainstream thinking, rather than the spontaneous cut and thrust of creative ideas. So we - who are excluded from the inner sanctum of Umno faithful - have to assume that their perennial call to arms is an integral part of Umno ideology. After all, May 13 was the cornerstone upon which the grand superstructure of the NEP had been erected for the past 35 years.

It is no use to lodge any police report against this outburst of outright sedition, since the person in charge of the Home Ministry is also Umno president. Pak Lah is obviously made from a different cast from that of the pseudo-hornet, but his tenuous hold on the party means that he has to endure the political baggage inherited from his predecessor, including the strange ideology of mengamok expounded in the Malay Dilemma .

Generally, the subject of May 13 is a social taboo in Malaysia, at least in public discourse. It is the tacit understanding of reasonable citizens that the topic is too sensitive for public discussion, especially among mixed company. Mixed, that is, in racial terms.