While it is almost delightful that our dirty linen is washed in public by someone no less credible than the father of Malaysian political dirty tricks, one worries if the Malaysian public is getting used to all these hanky panky, with the resigned acceptance of a muted flock.

It shall certainly be so, if we feel that the recent revelations are inevitable trappings of the BN brand of 'political stability'. Since we continue to believe that the BN is our only government of choice, our present choices for national leadership would then in reality be limited to just four:

A bungling simpleton still reeling from the wonder and bewilderment of finding out that the job of a prime minister is more than just about making people feel good, and his family feeling even better.

A proxy for a persistent old ex-dictator who overstayed his welcome because he is paranoid of being found out about whatever mischief he was up to.

A deputy and 'lady-in-waiting' whose resume among the grapevine is lengthier than his record of political courage.

And finally sadly, whoever that emerges from the comical crop of keris-wielding and biker-loving young apprentices in patronage-politics of Umno Youth.

These are our passive choices if we choose to ignore global competition, a growing population and a shrinking pie, and for as long as the oil is still flowing. And we knowingly doing so at the peril of those who come after us.

Or shall we look at the present elite discord for what it really is a mockery of the vote and trust we gave these leaders, and the sham they made of the democracy we hold dear.

Only then shall we be compelled to look harder at alternative politics and wield the courage to risk whatever that may come with change.

But change we must.