“If a danger threatens you, you threaten that danger too.”
 – Mehmet Murat İldan

COMMENT | The Malaysian prime minister’s threat of violence – Islamic State (IS) or otherwise – against the Chinese community is the kind of political malfeasance demonstrating that with each passing day, this country slips into a kind of kleptocratic manure hole much favoured by regional and international power brokers.

The Malay community is split not because of the Chinese community, but because of tectonic shifts in Malay power structures caused by the ejection of the charismatic Anwar Ibrahim from the Umno fold, and briefly a glorious moment of political simpatico between disparate oppositional power structures.

The reality is that Umno is demonstrating that if they lose power (even by a small margin), they will resort to creating instability using whatever means at their disposal. Does this sound seditious? Well, this rejoinder comes from a former Umno president and longest serving prime minister of this region and now de facto opposition leader, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

To recap: "Either that or the government would refuse to admit defeat. The opposition would be accused of cheating. No evidence would be needed for the government to declare this. The bullies in BN would be ready to create instability. On this basis, there could be a declaration of a state of emergency and Parliament would be suspended," he said in a posting on his blog, Chedet.

If readers are interested, they can read my commentary here: “Let us get something out of the way first. The only political party in BN that has the means and ways of creating instability is Umno and Umno has never been shy of playing the bully in Malaysian politics. Therefore, if any political party is going to declare emergency rule, it is not going to be the BN alliance but rather Umno”...