Within the last 12 years, many Malaysians have been razed in three dusky episodes of the stockmarket. Malaysians 'mudah lupa'. Where greed reigns, neither walls nor battlements (nor degrees of learning, Oxbridge included) can save the Humpty-Dumpty of the stockmarket from a fall.

In 1993, a good many innocent investors had their investment portfolios reduced to ashes. Was not a certain former finance minister cajoled into admitting playing the stockmarket for 'pasar malam' change?

And in 1997 the Asian Financial Holocaust struck. The exchange crisis brought the Humpty- Dumpty of regional currencies tumbling. Did not a prime minister promise the mirage of a 'salvation fund' of RM70 billion (or so) for Malaysian investors?

This made the headlines. The battle cry was 'Soros, go home'. Patriotic Malaysians manned the crumbling investment battlements and shored up their portfolios against the shifting sands of fortunes.

These 'who-asked-not-the reason-why' paid a dear price for their unflinching loyalty. Theirs was to do and die. In the din that followed, the premier promises were 'lupa-ed'. Untold numbers of market punters (euphemistically, investors) then lost both their arms and legs and remain crippled (financially) to this day. No 'salvation fund'. Even prime ministers 'mudah lupa'.

And now in 2005, a new crop of investors has emerged in fields where for some years (1998- 2003) even angels had feared to tread. This is followed by fresh avalanches and carnage .

The reasons far exceed the simple curriculum of Finance and Banking 101. Guys with PhDs and fund managers with sterling experience have paid the same price. Sometimes, I wonder whether even Oxbridge icons can make sense of the dynamics of marketplace equations.

The stockmarket is fraught with dangers. Having seen the three dusky episodes and two others that pre-dated them and having much, much more than mere Banking and Finance 101, I would say this - the stockmarket is a negative sum game for a good segment of the uninitiated.

Hey folks, put on your thinking caps and be sensible. There are credible and safer alternatives, if this is not too late. I would tell you more if not for the risk of overstepping the boundaries of fairness and treading on libelous terrain.

All said, I can still forgive Pak Lah for his remarks (not having been there and done that) but I would have the hides of his advisers and blister their bottoms for such 'crassa negligentia', such abysmally shoddy briefing and such inexcusable PR gaffes and lapses.

Politicians, in general, can appear foolhardy when they pretend to competence and knowledge in areas never before traversed. This is why they need more than just good advisers. This is also why we need clever member of parliaments too.

And as a last word of encouragement for those who got thrashed - life must go on.