If we are to accept K Temoc's damning piece on Anwar Ibrahim and the reformasi movement as a valid verdict of voters' behavioural tendencies, then I can accept the people's resignation to the our pathetic political state of affairs.

But I do not believe that it is valid. It is, like many of the dicta by self-serving elites, simple self-rationalisation that smack of defensiveness and defeatism. Manjit Bhatia is absolutely right about Malaysians not wanting to rock the boat. And if I may add at the slightest trivial excuse, especially by those who have more to lose if the boat rocks.

So Anwar Ibrahim does not qualify to lead the nation because he is supposedly a hypocrite? So how come Saifulbahri Kamaruddin's words are credible to K Temoc when in fact Saifulbahri is a self-confessed hypocrite? By his own admission, he earned money when he was a journalist, allowing things he believed to be untrue to be written in his name.

Now that Saifulbahri has retired, he has licence to take the moral high ground? But Anwar somehow does not deserve the time of day simply because he was once part of a corrupt regime? On the contrary, I think Saifulbahri still has the right to say what he says now. So does Anwar. The truth is the truth no matter who says it. Let us be consistent, and not rationalise by selective reference.

I agree that we must apply high standards in the selection criteria of our national leaders. As malaysiakini editor, Steven Gan, admits , Anwar Ibrahim is a flawed man. So tell me who in the present cabinet isn't?

Our nation needs leaders who can lead. And we do not have many around to choose from. Or are we expecting a messiah who will come, somehow, some day to lead us to salvation? Not from the present crop of Hishammuddins, Badaruddins, Samy Vellus, Nazri Azizes, Najib Razaks, or Pak Lah son-in-laws, who are all as guilty or worse for double-speak. And not one arising from the present paternalistic and tunnel-visioned education system, surely.

This is not to say that Anwar shall get the responsibility to lead and change the nation's governance by default. In spite of his past misadventures, everything considered, he certainly deserves to be our prime minister. In response to Temoc's charges, consider these with an open mind:

• If it is alleged that Anwar is saying what he is saying now because he wants to be PM so badly, why did he not play dumb like Pak Lah as deputy PM and bid his time in slumber like Pak Lah did? He had to act before things got worse, took a gamble and lost, and had paid dearly for it. And things did get worse after that, didn't they? The fact that benign Pak Lah was chosen for the job indicated the vileness of Mahathir's defensive actions.

We can choose to be fastidious in our search for leaders but let us not do so by exaggerating the warts and missing the man. And meanwhile, the world passes us by. I take comfort that there is still a voice in our wilderness that cares enough for the disenfranchised, while others in Putrajaya wallow in their greed.

In all, I am not embarrassed nor shy to claim as loud as I can that Anwar Ibrahim is my version of a selfless macho visionary, flaws and all, whom I want to lead this nation for the sake of my children and their children after that.

Let us speak up and be heard. Bashfulness, in this context, is not a virtue.