On Feb 5, 2005, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called for Umno to be the agent of towering Malays, which he defined as a personality with good values, high calibre, capability and talent equipped with learning, knowledge and wisdom to motivate not only the Malays but also the other races.

When Malaysians waited with bated breath for the towering Malay to appear in the recent Umno general assembly last month, they did not have in mind a towering Malay brandishing a keris (traditional Malay dagger) and thrusting it in a war-like manner into the air to champion Malay rights against imaginary enemies.

Neither did they expect the towering Malay to be one who relied on outdated, backward divisive and failed policies that do not promote the national economic interest.

Nor did they forsee another towering Malay to shed tears of sorrow at being so misunderstood and the injustice of being criticised for distributing government largesse to the few instead of the many.

Or the towering Malay pandering to emotion by opposing the building of new Chinese primary schools in congested urban areas when this should be based on educational needs.

And yet we do not see the same courage to stand up and protest against the Indonesian government for failing to exercise their responsibility to seek international assistance to put out the fires that caused this terrible haze, endangering the health of 25 million Malaysians.