"If you get back the power next time, please don’t forget Teoh's family, who have been waiting for 11 years."

- Teoh Lee Lan, sister of Teoh Beng Hock

COMMENT | Anyone who reads my columns understands that financial corruption, especially when it comes to politicians, holds very little interest for me. This is because a country can recover from a kleptocracy, but it rarely does from a theocracy.

In numerous articles, I have attempted to hammer the point that religious extremism is the existential threat facing this country. In Malaysia’s case, it is worse because race and religion are not mutually exclusive.

Nearly every issue in this country is turned into a racial issue, which then morphs into a religious issue. One such example is the murder of Teoh Beng Hock, which I have been obsessed with over the past decade.

Like the horrors of mass graves at Wang Kelian, Beng Hock's case exposes the underbelly of political power in Malaysia in a way that should shock most of its citizens, but instead, it just becomes a talking point for those interested in politics.

The propagandising of Beng Hock's death and...