This 'Lingam tape' issue seems to be like a Shakespeare tragedy in the making. The senior lawyer must be feeling like Julius Caesar who was betrayed by Brutus. But the person who spilt the beans on his wrongdoings is none other than his own brother. "Et tu, Brutus" is an apt phrase to describe one who is stabbed in the back by their own flesh and blood.

It is perplexing that although VK Lingam's brother had lodged a police report against him in March, why have the authorities failed to act? The explosive details of how the senior lawyer has a more than a professional relationship with senior judges and a former police chief speak volumes of the corruption and abuse of power by the high and mighty in our society.

The royal commission on the Lingam tape, of which the government has dragged its feet to set up, should be given broader powers to look into the widespread corruption practiced in the judiciary. The shenanigans have destroy the people's faith in our judges to act as honest brokers in any conflict between them and powerful litigants.

There is something rotten in the judiciary if judges can be bought by powerful litigants or be promoted and elevated by third parties. If all the arms of the government - be it the executive, parliament or judiciary - are full of corrupted people, it would be a matter of time before our country becomes a failed nation like other third world countries where inept leaders have caused economic chaos resulting in the common people living in abject poverty while the elites live pompous lifestyles.

We cannot be in a state of denial on the ills of society. Endemic corruption and abuse of power by those holding the forts have resulted in declining standards of living. All Malaysians, regardless of their stations in life, are stakeholders of this country. We are in the same boat. If the country sinks in a sea of despair, all of us will suffer.

The recent demonstrations by Bersih calling for a free and fair election is a wake-up call to the present regime not to take the people's vote for granted in the next general elections. The winds of change may blow to our shores as no government in the world can survive if the leaders are corrupt to the core.

The foundations on which our forefathers have built this great nation on, where every citizen regardless of race and creed are supposed to enjoy the economic pie equally, are being hijacked by the elites who have plundered government funds for their own selfish needs.

At the rate the government is going with its wrongdoings, not only will the government buildings collapse as in Banding, Perak but the present regime will sink like Titanic in the coming polls.EC still stooges to ruling party.