COMMENT "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

This remark attributed to US president Harry Truman is famously evocative of the pressures a politician must face if his or her mettle is to be deemed strong enough to withstand the rigours of such a life.

By those standards Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, the DAP vice-chairperson who resigned his post on Monday over issues stemming from his criticism of the Bersih 3.0 protest, has been found wanting.

His decision to quit the party, after a brief four years as a member and coming as it does in the immediate prelude to a general election, will cause a minor dent in the DAP's public image but would provide its adversaries with an expedient weapon with which to beat it...