vox populi small thumbnail 'Any institutional change to deliver socioeconomic results will take decades, not years. If the BN chief is indeed serious, he would have placed major institutions under the direct scrutiny of Parliament.'

Cala: No change is expected from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak; it will be business as usual. The acid test for Najib, if he wants to reform the BN, is in his manner of governance.

Can the much discredited institutions (the police, the MACC, judiciary, Attorney-General's Chambers and of late, hospitals) be resurrected to their previous glory and be seen as independent from Umno control?

This is not going to be easy. It is akin to shooting your own feet. One thing is true - any institutional change to deliver socioeconomic results will take decades, not years. If the BN chief is indeed serious, he would have placed these institutions under the direct scrutiny of Parliament, the way Pakatan Rakyat proposed in their common policy framework.

Yuvan: Among the unresolved issues of 2009 as highlighted, there were two issues - ‘Can BN reform itself?' and ‘What exactly is ‘1Malaysia'? - which I strongly believe will again be unresolved issues for 2010 and also for many years to come. The reasons are simple. Umno will continue to be adamant that only its voice should be heard and respected in the BN coalition.

So if Umno cannot - or does not want to - be reformed, there is no hope that BN can be reformed. BN has launched the ‘1Malaysia' concept. But the fact is that a number of Umno leaders say and/or do things which are not at all in tandem with BN's ‘1Malaysia' propaganda and this makes it all the more intriguing.

The reality is BN's reformation and the success of ‘1Malaysia' is heavily intertwined, that one cannot be achieved without the other. I doubt if these two issues can ever be resolved.

Grand past but uncertain future for Seri Carcosa

Times: Malaysia has lost most of its heritage buildings through the unscrupulous actions of short-sighted greedy developers, who can easily dip into their big pockets to provide ‘incentives' to encourage local authorities to agree to their plans. Penang is probably the best example of this, but Malacca and Kuala Lumpur have many examples too.

In Penang, there was the infamous Christmas Day a few years ago when, despite a court order, a developer demolished the Metropole Hotel, an important, listed historic building. The local council intelligently suggested that the developer should rebuild it. Ha, ha! There now stands one of the ugliest office buildings in Penang, with a ridiculously incongruent line of imitation Corinthian columns at the entrance.

If developers who have only money in mind get their way, no doubt Carcosa will go the same way. The powers-that-be in Malaysia have no real concept of the true value of historic buildings, and their proper preservation. They are only concerned with short-term gains. So very sad.

A gripping account of the Mahathir years

Ong Guan Sin: I am very pleased that history has not been kind to Mahathir. The delight is in the fact that Mahathir lived long enough to see the launch of this book.

RubyStar: Hello Home Minister, the longer you procrastinate in your decision to ban the book, the more the appetite of the rakyat is whetted and the more armchair critics are going to make a meal out of it. In this age of a borderless world, the book will soon find its way onto the Internet and perhaps an e-book may surface soon.

Most of us know of the excesses of Mahathir. It is not today's and yesterday's news. It has been going on for years. So why try to ban the book for national security reasons? Release it and soon the furore will die a natural death.

Nothing fruitful comes out of this ministry under your helm anyway. Except that once in a while we see your photo plastered all over the front pages on how you awarded a citizenship or two to those who have been waiting for years when actually these are deserving cases where your ministry have either erred or goofed up.

Fiction: The book is not banned - it has been released and in fact it is sold out even before it hit the shelves. I got one, and the fact is I got it through cronyism. Cronyism is not dead. Nice book, portrays Mahathir as not what you would think, but includes a few viewpoints you will be disappointed with.

'1Malaysia' gov't should usher in Race Relations Act

Varvoom: Under a Race Relations Act, it is unlawful for a person to discriminate on racial grounds against another. The act defines racial grounds as including race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins. To bring a case under a Race Relations Act, you have to show you have been discriminated against in one or more ways that are unlawful under the act.

If such a law can be enacted, then with one stroke, all those political parties and institutions that comprise of only one race are made illegal. That would make my day - to see Umno, MCA, MIC, etc, admitting other races. Even the prime minister's position will be open to all. If Indonesia can have such a law, why not Malaysia?

Malaysia will be flooded with talent and ‘brain gain'. The economy will grow exponentially, poverty would be consigned to history and Malaysia will join the developed nations sooner than we think. Utopia or just a pipe dream?

Kgan: We can have good laws but will they be implemented fairly? For example the Sedition Act seems to apply only to the opposition while Umno cohorts can get away with anything.

So will a Race Relations Act be implemented in such a way that private businesses are forced to give fair opportunities to the other races but its closes an eye to GLC's employing 90 percent of only one race?

I've no confidence that the implementation will be fair. Even better than any Race Relations Act is to just get rid of Umno and their race-based politics.