The Sultan of Johor has acted reasonably. His royal highness recognises that the monarchy is an institution whose very subsistence hinges upon the necessity for complete political detachment and impartiality.

The same, however, cannot be said for those politicians and other interested minions who were ever so quick to infer, maliciously or misguidedly, that any ‘non-BN’ factual statement being issued about crime in Johor is a direct form of indictment upon the sultan and his people, whilst those emanating from Umno/BN are automatically not. (The same modus operandi has often been used by these politicians in matters concerning race and religion.)

This, obviously, cannot be further from the truth. Is there any Johorean who is so lowly that he would not want his state to have a lower crime-rate? Which Johorean and which Malaysian does not wish for a safer Johor? If there is any, let him speak.

The first step in eradicating crime is to point it out. Is there a better start?

But, of course, the problem with lesser politicians is that they are always a function of form over substance. Of ‘face’ over truth. Of gold over love. They are a hyperbolic personification and over-quantisation of the old saying, ‘biar putih tulang jangan putih mata’.

To take the metaphor further (if one may), they are either unable, or are refusing, to see that no quantum of reduction in the crime-rate of Johor can ever amount to a 'whitening' of the eyes of the people of Johor.

One will still recall with vivid consternation the callous manner in which Umno and BN (that is 99% Umno and 1% BN) had once dealt with the sultanate (specifically) and with the whole institution of monarchy in Malaysia (generally).

Whether it was right or wrong is now a matter of historical judgment.

But it was certainly substantial and not peripheral. If there was an injury there it definitely went beyond a matter of ‘face.’ It went to the very core of the Malaysian monarchy. Did the same politicians and trouble-makers ascribe any blame to Umno (and BN) for that death-defying stunt that only it could, and did, perform during its heyday?