I was in Malaysia in December last year, not long after the explosive news of the murdered Mongolian translator hit the newsstands. Within a space of a couple of dinners with some friends and old colleagues, it became obvious that there was more than meet the eye and as usual, it involved allegations of wanton abuse of power by powerful public figures who think of themselves more as feudal lords than public servants.

All the dirt is coming out now. The star witness of the prosecution is now a subject of prosecution impeachment proceedings. A significant but previously absent piece of evidence has suddenly emerged in the form of a mysterious man and his vehicle, elements totally unreported before. It is as though an author of a bad script has suddenly inserted a brand new act into this comic tragedy.

Comical in that the shenanigans of the legal fraternity of Malaysia have become a joke which has long turned into a source of annoyance, nay, a scourge, to the frustrated public. While Malaysians used to laugh at the "irrelevant" remarks of Augustine Paul, the High Court judge, they now face the prospect of having a totally ineffectual and irrelevant judiciary and public prosecutor's office and so they can no longer afford to laugh.

This is more obviously a tragedy on at least two fronts. The emotional storms the family of the victim must be going through are sins for which the perpetrators of this heinous crime would hopefully, at least grieve over if not severely punished. The other tragedy is the continuing degradation of the sense accountability and law enforcement/public order machineries which has plagued Malaysia for so long.

Malaysians are fast losing any hope of salvaging its public institutions and the sense of what's right. Nothing short of deliberate and concerted public meetings to strongly and aggressively voice total disaffection would do.