COMMENT | The other day I went to look at a wall. Indeed, I paid good money for the privilege of staring at nothing for one and a half hours.

The one and a half hours is roughly the duration of time I might have spent at a comedy club, indie rock gig, cultural event or cinema hall.

Needless to say, such options have been increasingly clamped down upon as your beloved Ismail Sabri Yaakob regime moves with aplomb to crack down on comedy, toughen up on Thor and raze rock venues.

The fact that the backward Taliban lovers of PAS are part of this coterie is doubtless an accelerating factor, but we are clearly paying the price of allowing the corrupt, racist and stupid to set the pace and tone for this country’s future development. Or lack thereof.

If it sounds like I am being melodramatic, just take a close look around you. The great Malaysian diversity of voice is being killed off on so many fronts in so many ways.

When I was a kid living in...