Malaysiakini 's headline Ummi to do an Anwar on Azalina, will answer PM's call for lesbian proof contrasted with the other media handling of the same topic.

It is bold and brave, especially in a country that has a surveillance state, if not close enough to a police state, and where free speech and press freedom is non-existent. So, well done.

Now, it seems we're at the outset of yet another political farce and character assassination of one Umno member by another whose action wreaks of utter malice and deceit, who not only brought down a popular politician, Anwar Ibrahim, but who — with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's blessing — proceeded to wreck his life and that of his family.

But the need for Ummi Hafilda Ali to again present her case and 'witnesses' against Puteri Umno chief Azalina Othman Said to Mahathir first, only makes one wonder why Malaysia has a judiciary at all. From all perspectives, Mahathir is chief judge, sole juror, and chief executioner.

Democracy in Malaysia died more than 32 years ago. Everybody knows that. After 45 years of independence, political maturity in Malaysia is as elusive as eliminating world hunger.

Since 1981, Mahathir and his coterie of politicians and cronies have conveniently hid behind the Internal Security Act and the Sedition Act like cowards. They seem well above the law — their law or, to be precise, Mahathir's.

For Mahathir to even entertain Ummi's allegations — after the huge international shame in the handling of the ex-deputy premier's trials — is plainly stupid.

What business is it of Mahathir's, or anyone else's in Umno, if a person is homosexual?

When will Malaysians tell their political representatives that they have had enough of their stupidity? That their political power is not their sole preserve but a shared and accountable responsibility?

If we can vote them in, we can also vote them out. It's our democratic right, if Mahathir says Malaysia is a democracy.