COMMENT | Warisan MP Mohamaddin Ketapi’s alleged insult of the state security apparatus is just another footnote in the history of the propagandising and manipulation of the state security apparatus by the political apparatus of this country.

The howls of outrage from folks who claim that they are shocked that a political operative would “insult” the hardworking men and women of the state security apparatus is indicative of the hypocrisy that permeates the political landscape here and around the world.

I despise the use of the state security apparatus as just another tool in the propaganda toolbox of political operatives and civilians who, when politically convenient, either canonise or demonise the men and women who serve the state often at the costs to their lives.

I do not have a romanticised view of service to the country, coming from the school of thought that believes that professional service in the defence of the realm for coin while a noble profession...