COMMENT | Barely four months in power, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has made whirlwind tours to eight countries - Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Cambodia - and is planning one to China.

The visits overseas could be more than the number of Malaysian states he has visited since he became prime minister. That would be the more preferable route because he could have used his oratorical skills to drum up support from the rakyat for what he proposes to do, chief of which is fighting corruption.

His latest quick trip to Saudi Arabia raises more questions and answers and in his haste to make his way there, he has created more problems than solving them. The trip ended in ignominy when he met neither the king nor the crown prince.

Considering that these are the two people who hold the power strings in the kingdom, which is an absolute monarchy like Brunei and therefore a dictatorship, there is nothing of note that he could have achieved without meeting both of them....