“Dangers lurk in all systems. Systems incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators. Adopt a system, accept its beliefs, and you help strengthen the resistance to change.”

- Frank Herbert

COMMENT | Former chief justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad’s “other view” of the judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali fiasco attempts to present our public institutions as bodies which are independent and defined by integrity.

My friend, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim, makes more or less the same case here.

The potency of their argument rests not only on the independence and integrity of our public institutions but also on the rakyat’s faith in those institutions.

While Zaid makes it very clear that he is confident in the democratic and legal safeguards in place, Hamid’s (above) piece displays Manichean undertones that reflect the highly partisan nature of the polity, not to mention defects in our public institutions

I will give you an example. He invites readers to...