Charles Hector is totally right to claim that we should not expect any major changes from new Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

As far as the Internal Security Act and other draconian laws go, those responsible for these go all the way back to the Barisan Nasional, the Alliance party preceding it and the colonial British administration before that, as part of attempts to protect the interests of ruling colonialists and local comprador and other capitalist class which dictate overall policy.

However, just as a change of a corporate CEO inevitably results in some changes of practice and style within organisations, Abdullah has shown, or wants to be seen as showing, a different focus on issues like corruption, greater government efficiency, poverty, etc than Mahathir. This is perhaps because we're approaching an election year and the BN is trying to wean away potential Barisan Alternatif voters.

Perhaps Abdullah will also shift focus from projects like the Multimedia Super Corridor, realising fully well that neither information technology nor biotechnology can provide the kind of mass employment that industrial work can and has. The few exceptions being contact centres (or call centres) which do everything from help desk work to telesales over the phone and Internet.

Abdullah seems to correctly recognise that we should not neglect our agricultural sector, especially since we cannot eat bits and bytes. He has also indicated his issue with our "third world mentality amidst a first-world infrastructure" and perhaps he may want to take issue with things like cars doing u-turns at traffic lights in front of policemen in kiosks, motorcycles driving the wrong way up a road (mainly due to a lack of places to do a legal u-turn), exposed electrical wiring on lamp posts.

Do we need someone to die before the Barisan Nasional government goes through a knee jerk reaction with all the newspapers jump in tearing their hair out for a week, over issues like accidents and deaths over the Hari Raya holidays?

I've noticed that Abdullah isn't paying much attention to the Multimedia Super Corridor. Perhaps he has other ideas, but whatever the case, I hope he will ensure our transition back to laminated paper ID cards and real living. After all, we still need lots of service jobs (albeit mundane) in the glorious and futuristic promised land of the information technology society so that people can pay the rent and not turn to crime.