A story in Malaysiakini on July 20 carried the headline: 'Stop politicising Teoh's death, Nazri warns opposition'.

The terms "politicise" and "politicising" have been used quite liberally by BN ministers and their supporters in the media for many decades now to mean something derogatory. What few people realise is that these very Malaysian political lexicons have their roots in the political evolution of our nation in the 1970s.