The fiasco that is the 'Jawi raid incident' lumbers on at its own inebriated pace, and the nation awaits the outcome with jaded eyes and a cynical conscience. After all, we have seen all this before: the plethora of raids, accusations, counter-accusations, threats and abuse that invariably peter out and die a natural death.

There was nothing new about the latest brouhaha unleashed by the self-appointed moral guardians of our state religious police. Nor have their methods evolved in any meaningful sense.

The country's political parties, true to form, have chosen to shut up rather than stand up and be counted; save for two: PAS has at least exercised its democratic right to shoot itself in the foot by supporting the goings-on of Jawi's cohorts (much in the same way that its support for the Taliban and declaration of jihad against the USA in the recent past did more damage to it than even the most fervent PAS-haters in Umno could have dreamed of), while Gerakan, true to its calling as the 'liberal conscience of the Barisan Nasional' has called on the government to seriously reconsider the usefulness of such bodies.

The mainstream parties - Umno, MCA, MIC - and the mainstream opposition including Keadilan have so far said little about the matter.