May I commend Gee's incisive commentary , and share her concern on the Malaysian ' tidak apa thy' towards such fundamental matters as freedom of speech and of expression which is, to quote noted Malaysian jurist, Param Cumarasamy, "the mother of all freedoms".

And the group of apathetic theatre-goers that Gee alluded to is presumably the well-educated middle-class strata of society whose basic requirements per Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs are well-fulfilled.

If this is the response one gets from the educated townsfolk, little wonder that the rural masses will be almost impossible to reach.

Nowhere is the maxim of "we get the government (or system) we deserve" clearer illustrated than in Malaysia, where the middle-class are rocked into a stupor of inane complacency resulting in a society where a better house, car, job, overseas holidays etc, i.e. almost anything material, is more important than civil liberties or human rights.

To be fair, it is arguable that Malaysian society has been so traumatised by the repression and authoritarianism of the past 35 years (especially since May 1969) that we have forgotten what we have lost, thus we do not even miss the loss.

Ironically, all over the world, free civil societies and new democratic nations have emerged in the same period, as nation after nation broke free from the shackles of tyranny and oppression. The most dramatic of these must be the ex-communist states of Eastern Europe and the newly-freed African states such as South Africa and Mozambique.

Nearer home, nations such as South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and even East Timor comes to mind as nations that, in recent history, broke free of authoritarianism and dictatorship.

Alas, in Bolehland, we are still exhorted to be grateful for the "peace, harmony and stability" that the government "bestows" upon us, and obviously, in Malaysian politi-speak, "civil liberties and democratic freedoms" cannot mutually co-exist with "peace, harmony and stability" and so we are exhorted to choose "wisely" which of the two sets of goodies we would rather have.

We probably rank very high if there were a global per capita emigration index for advanced developed nations. Obviously, most Malaysians emigrants, who tend to be fairly affluent and well-educated do not emigrate for economic reasons.

They, in fact, would rather 'vote with their feet' than wait for the proverbial 'durian of civil liberties' to fall. Perhaps these are the smarter Malaysians, the rest of us that remain are possibly the "inane stuporised" majority.

To replace these affluent emigrants, our Bolehland bureaucrats of course came up with this brilliant 'My Second Home' programme to entice retired 'Mat Sallehs' (slang for Caucasians) to come and exploit our good quality of life for a song, in material terms that is.

These 'Mat Sallehs' we prostrate ourselves to welcome are the same ones that our erstwhile 'Great Helmsman' feels free to condemn every now and then as "immoral, promiscuous Jew-lovers".

Election time is here again (and I don't mean the play).

Dare we hope that our voters will at last realise that we truly get the kind of leaders we deserve?