Any structure without a strong, solid foundation will quickly fall over under stress. And so it is with Malaysia. In our rush to tower over others, to be the tallest, biggest and the best, we've compromised our morality, sense of decency and justice, along with our respect for honest, hard work.

Consequently, like so many of our failed building projects, the cracks are showing up faster than we can plaster them over.

Take the prolonged saga of sniping, snubbing and bickering between one veteran minister and the former prime minister over the distribution of APs. The dramatic financial losses by one of the nation's largest banks and our national airline. The shock and embarrassment of Malaysia's premier university's low ranking in a global line-up.

And now, a desperate home minister has to crawl off to China to apologise and explain away the wanton abuses of our lewd and corrupt police in a desperate bid to check the plummeting numbers of Chinese tourist arrivals.

Is there not a reprieve in sight? Well, not until and unless we've had enough of the lying, cheating and covering-up. As long as most of us can still stomach the nonsense that our government dishes out, all of us will have to live with the tottering legacy of our willful ignorance and apathy.

As they say, what goes around comes around. And it's going to be a long way down.