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. - Malaysiakini, Jan 24, 2021

The personal rights and beliefs of a section of citizens have been impeded and trampled on with total disregard to what is stated in the constitution. Instead, the clauses are interpreted to their own whim and fancy. Today, the country is at crossroads with each holding forth his or her own skewed views. - Malaysiakini, Dec 20, 2020

COMMENT | These excerpts are from commentaries written within a span of five weeks. It bluntly replicates the state of the nation and many other underlying issues. After five months, have we seen any change?

Zilch. Zero. Nought. Nothing. Nil. As a matter of fact, the situation has deteriorated, plunging the country into unknown depts resulting in its citizens feeling a sense of gloom and doom.

Fellow columnist Mariam Mokhtar who is based in London sent me this message last night: “Hi Nades, how are you. Are things really getting bad? A few months ago, I thought they couldn't get any worse. They proved me wrong.”

The backdoor government continues to (wrongly) remind us that good times are ahead. Everything is hunky-dory, they say but beyond the erroneous facts and figures presented is the bitter and hurtful truth compelling the prime minister to make some admissions.

“We don’t have much money,” he declared. But wasn’t he ...