‘Pak Lah will be remembered and respected by all Malaysians if he chooses to courageously abolish the Internal Security Act during his last few months in office,’ said the lady who shared an umbrella with me at a recent candlelight vigil.

‘This last act will become his single defining moment which will gain him the full respect of the people and bury all the negativities surrounding his lackluster administration of the past four years,’ she added with a slight tinge of hope in her voice.

But almost as soon as my mind began to paint a positive picture of the outgoing prime minister, the tone of her voice became sullen as she sighed on.

‘But alas. That is if he chooses to do it. Judging from the constant indecisive manner in which he conducts his government, he will most likely choose to remain dormant and end up becoming the most insignificant prime minister since independence.’

It was the sixth and last vigil in a series of gatherings at Dewan Sri Pinang to call for the abolishment of the ISA. As the event got underway, heavy rain started to pour down on us. I was offered shelter by the kind lady with an umbrella and although we were total strangers, we began sharing our thoughts and ideas as we stood in the rain with our candles and song sheets.

Yes. The world has seen the best in the likes of Alexander the Great of Macedonia and the worst, as in Ivan the Terrible of Russia. But in years to come, the future generations of Malaysia will end up reading about the legacy of ‘Pak Lah the Insignificant’.

These days, Pak Lah's name is mentioned everywhere – in the news media, blogs, coffee shops, offices, markets and eateries. I became curious as to the origin of the word ‘lah’ and did some research on the Internet. Lo and behold, I discovered the various ways in which ‘lah’ can be used in grammar, music and science.

The most common usage of ‘lah’ is as a suffix to end sentences in the Malay language and in our local version of the English language called Manglish (Malaysian English). Although ‘lah’ is widely used in our daily conversations, the word remains just a peculiarity of the language, of which the real meaning of its usage is hard to define.

We use the word ‘lah’ to soften a retort such as in 'Don't touch me lah' and to insinuate another person like 'He is a careless man lah'. We can also use it to express our utter disgust at someone by saying 'Please lah!' or when we are out of words in describing a hopeless person, we just bellow out loudly 'LAAAAAH!'.

It takes only three simple alphabets to make up this one insignificant word. That is what ‘lah’ is all about.

On a pleasant note, lah is also found in music. In the musical 'The Sound of Music' we were taught by Maria von Trapp about the fundamentals of music through the song 'Do-Re-Mi'. As we all know by now, every note has a different meaning such as ‘Do’ is a female deer, ‘Re’ is a drop of golden sun and ‘Mi’, a name I call myself. But what about the sixth note ‘La’?

According to Maria, La has no meaning at all and is just a simple note to follow So. Even the tiny note ‘T’i is known as a drink with jam and bread! But ‘La’ remains a meaningless sound in between ‘So’ and ‘Ti’.

DO-RE-MI-FA-SO-la-TI-DO. So duh! In fact the word ‘lah’ or its shorter version ‘la’ is normally used in replacement of forgotten lyrics during impromptu singing performances or just to hum a casual tune.

La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

Finally, ‘lah’ is also found in the world of science. ‘LAH’ is an abbreviation for Lithium Aluminum Hydride which is a reducing agent used in organic synthesis. Unfortunately, chemistry was my worst subject in school and I can't tell you much about ‘LAH’.

For those who would like to know more about LAH, please go here but please be warned that ‘LAH’ might be so boring that it will put you to sleep.

So, ‘lah’ is an undefined suffix in language and an insignificant note in music. And ‘lah’ can be so boring that it will put us all to sleep.

Coincidentally, the rule of our prime minister Pak Lah exudes all these qualities as it is beyond definition, insignificant and rather sleep-inducing at times.

In fact, he has sealed his fate as the most insignificant prime minister of all times when he recently said that the 'controversial Internal Security Act will not be subjected to review'.

He had a chance to become the nation's hero but he chose not to become one.

So now, what happens- lah ?