Our leaders display the same level of competence and intelligence as the renowned fable of Marie-Antoinette (1755-93), the Queen consort of Louis XVI. She is supposed to have said "Let them eat cake" when she was told that the French populace had no bread to eat.

Marie-A's reputation as an indulgent socialite is akin to our national leaders who do not associate themselves with the sufferings of the masses. Our top leaders distance themselves with layers upon layers of sycophants who crush others to maintain power for the top.

Our top leaders only care to maintain the system of patronage which empowers themselves and enriches the next echelon of gangster politicians who then keep the ordinary members in check.

Of course, these power brokers are crude self-serving gangsters. They are no better than triad leaders who are coarse and loathsome as they operate and rule on fear and rewards. Either buy someone or get rid of them (politically or physically).

Look at all the infighting that is going on in Umno and its component BN parties. All self-interested, self-serving barons who hark back to an ancient feudal system of allegiances built on patronage.

This mentality causes our leaders to indulge in grandiose designs of the highest towers, the longest bridges, the strongest navies, the largest projects, etc... Only by spending money to prop up their egos and largesse can these politicians hope to build their own wealth and power of patronage.

Hence money is made when money is spent. There is no consideration of adding value to society. These leaders have no concept of "Lean Production", where Toyota teaches how to add customer value and trim excesses where no customer value creation is determined.

So our country buys submarines to protect against unseen, unreal enemies when the true enemies are those within who seek to siphon national wealth into their own pockets via excessive spending activities.

Hence when the country is in deep economic distress due to global and local issues, what is left for the rakyat ? Of course, we have military hardware to stave off our hunger, we have submarines to satisfy our basic needs of food, clean water and a roof over our heads.

We have fingers itching to buy more helicopters when such huge funds can be used for more appropriate national social programmes to support the local economies and stop starving folks in marginalised segments of kampung and city from dying of hunger or from suffering from a lack of basic necessities.

There is no unifying vision of greater good because our leaders and their cronies are bereft of good thoughts or good intentions. These are veritable bad-hats of our society who feed off the misfortunes of society at large. What do they care about the poor - "Let them eat submarines!"

What did the French do with their incompetent and self-serving leaders? "Off with their heads".Take heed politicians!