COMMENT | Like the scanner at the Customs checkpoint in Port Klang and the CCTV in the Miri lockup, the government machinery is not only malfunctioning but on the verge of a complete breakdown. This has resulted in little remaining of systems and structures related to governance.

They have been replaced in some cases by warlords who want it to be done "My Way", throwing caution to the winds and adopting an "I know best" attitude.

Urgent remedial action is the only diagnostical answer for a cure. Is there a dogmatic and determined will and resolve to put an end to all these in the interests of the country and its people? Can an end be put to all the politicking and the tomfooleries of politicians, their cronies and wannabes?

"Kaput" may not be the most appropriate word to describe the current state of affairs. But at the rate things are moving, we will get there soon enough.

While some of the perpetrators of the problems can be classified as recalcitrant, the buck stops with the prime minister, because it was he who put them in positions of power – ministers and their deputies.

Thereafter, it was he who "bought" support from warlords and members of Parliament with offers of positions in statutory bodies and government-linked companies.

The results have been disastrous. Some ministers seem to believe...