We have a slavish press. Except for one or two, all of the newspapers are owned by component political parties of the BN government. It is not a good thing for these component parties to criticise the government.

There is no 'Fourth Estate' charged with the responsibility of rooting out corruption and to promote transparency and accountability. Some media organisations do good work but it is easy to reduce their impact by suggesting that they are motivated by an oppositionist agenda.

As all the work is done by the opposition, it is all too easy to dismiss their criticisms as being motivated by their political agenda. So there it is.

We have pretensions about becoming a developed nation but are quite unprepared for the institutional reforms that are necessary. We should be cautious.

Like the proverbial emperor who wore no clothes because he was told by his advisors that he was wearing the finest silk, our prime minister might find himself and the nation in a similar situation.