'It's high time we scrap this title thing. Even in America, the president is only called Mr President.'

Just call me Encik, thank you very much

Anonymous: So now I know. It was the British who led us to this crazed path of seeking titles. The taxpayers' money keep the monarch going and in return, they do us proud by conferring titles upon the well-endowed rakyat. It's a system that feeds on itself. It sounds so stupid and shallow.

We are walking around with tons and tons of man-made titles, glorifying ourselves by the very crappy things that the Brits left behind. It's high time we scrap this title thing. Even in America, the president is only called Mister President.

Cala: I am wondering whether this issue over titles can be viewed with lens similar to the way we view the product-life cycle in the marketing context. If they do, their usefulness and utility to the society can be seen in five stages:

i) development;

ii) introduction;

iii) growth;

iv) maturity; and

v) decline.

But judging from the prolific award of the titles over the years, with one subscriber lamenting that if you throw a stone into a crowd, you are bound to hit a datuk, we may well be seeing the beginning of the decline stage.

What if we argue it from an ‘egalitarian society's' perspective? A happier society is one where everyone is treated equal - no special privileges, no jumping queues and no Malaysian version of a caste system.

Satinah Osman: It has become a fixation in the minds of all and sundry to have a Dato or Tan Sri title behind or in front of their names. The wives want to be Datins as soon as possible so that she can flaunt herself in front of everyone and push her way through to the front of the buffet table.

God forbid if someone fails to call her Datin or send a greeting card to the couple without saying Dato and Datin followed by nearly a sackful of titles behind the name. Miss one title and God have mercy on you.

Sometime ago Raja Petra Kamarudin wrote an article where he said one royalty had been collecting RM 200,000 for issuing datukships for many years. Who knows how far this wretched thing has moved into other states. Some states used to give datukships by the hundreds.

The newspapers have to take three to four days to print all the JMN, KMN, PPN, RKP, JP etc, every time a state comes out with awards. These titles have become meaningless these days.

Ong: My Malay friend's grandchildren address him as datuk. Nobody can take that ‘datukship' away from him. Non-Malays who like to be addressed as datuk can also teach their grandchildren to address them as datuk.

However, pity those grandmas and those not old enough yet to be a grandma who love to be addressed as ‘datin'. There's no alternative way for them to become a datin.

In the case of Chua Jui Meng, justification for stripping his titles aside, I believe he himself loves the title of Datuk in front of his name. Otherwise he would not have gone around the country collecting all those datukships during his heydays as a minister.

On the matter of specialists being addressed as ‘Mister', as far as I know it is only surgeons, and not other specialists, who are addressed as such, and such practice is prevalent mainly in the UK and Ireland.

Smile: I heard of a case of a Datuk who beat a long queue at the immigration checkpoint in an airport. When he was stopped by an immigration official, he told him he was a Datuk. The immigration officer politely told him, "Yes, Mr Datuk, please queue up like the other passengers."

MACC hot on 'Sabah Umno' money trail

Sarawakian: Why now? This has been going on for decades. For some reason, Hong Kong seems to be a popular destination for money laundering with politicians and timber tycoons from East Malaysia.

The chief minister of Sarawak was alleged to be involved in money laundering previously relating to the timber industry. As usual, the then Anti-Corruption Agency was mum over the case. In the case of Sabah, the CM was seen to be challenging his boss. If not, everything would be dandy and it would be business as usual.

Habib RAK: No doubt that corrupt money is involved here. The key personalities directly involved are Chief Minister Musa Aman and his cronies. However, the reason why MACC is actively pursuing this is partly because the HK anti-corruption agency will soon charge and expose key Malaysians involved.

But there is also another battle that is brewing here concurrently - the one between Shafie Apdal and Musa Aman. Shafie is seeking to oust Musa Aman as CM. More details here .

Wong KW: All those people, and those corrupted politicians, are absolutely disgusting. We don't even have a proper public hospital in Kota Kinabalu, and a lot of poor patients are suffering and dying. Being an atheist, I still really wish hell exists waiting for all of them to be burn in eternity.

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