I refer to the Malaysiakini report Hisham apologises for keris act .

I found the whole episode so bewildering that it took me a full week of thinking through the various aspects of it before I felt I had enough clarity to pen down the following questions and observations.

Let's begin from the very beginning. I would like to post this question: what was the message that Hishammuddin was trying to convey by waving the keris , accompanied by the ultra-radical slogans from Umno Youth supporters? Did Hishammuddin think that the Chinese were making too many unreasonable demands such that he had to wave a weapon as a gesture to defend the rights of the Malays? If that was the case, then what were the demands the Chinese made that were deemed so unreasonable by him?

Was he referring to the Chinese demand for more Chinese schools? What I recalled was that the Chinese communities were not even demanding for more Chinese schools, only to relocate some schools in the rural areas to the city to reflect the change in demographics of the population.

Is there something wrong with Chinese education, for example that it hinders ethnic integration? If Chinese education was not the issue, then what was it?

Whatever it is - why can’t our leaders enter into mature dialogues with each another to resolve the issues instead of resorting to waving weapons and chanting ultra-radical slogans?

As of now, I still do not understand what the issue was about. Hishammuddin’s apology was as if it had something to do with the dignity of the keris and the Malay race. That’s not it. He could have waved a parang or a Chinese sword and the people would be equally offended by it.

Similarly Najib's follow-up statements Najib: Keris apology won't derogate Malay dignity and MCA’s acceptance of the apology was equally nonsensical.

I remembered reading about how the Beatles were being promoted at the beginning. The promoter hired a bunch of young girls and got them to scream and tear off their clothes and that set off a whole generation of mass hysteria. Now we have one person waving a weapon, a few people responded with some slogans and the whole country is divided in semi-hysteria.

To me this whole episode was only a cheap publicity stunt intended to further one person’s political interest.