Whenever confronted with hard truths, Malaysian ministers used to simper a lame excuse. Now they have digressed even further by either standing still and looking silly, or just blaming their predecessors.

After the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear emergency on an unprecedented scale in Japan, our Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui could not confirm if the proposal to construct nuclear power plants had been approved. He was struggling to put on an awkward smile, knowing that he had been sort of sleeping on his job.