COMMENT | Saddened by the state of our country, I wrote a piece titled “Cry, my beloved country” six years ago.

But the unexplainable happened on May 9. The old regime was swept out of power through an unprecedented electoral revolt. Hope finally arrived on our shores.

However, the frantic rush by party warlords to install the next prime minister after the current one steps down mid-term is worrying. Still, my hope is anchored on nothing less than a New Malaysia. Cry no more, my beloved country.

Two former The Star colleagues of mine, both retired, one in Penang and the other in New York, were trying to catch up across the distance that separates them just the other day in Petaling Jaya. Very soon they came to the same conclusion. They don’t trust Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister-in-waiting.

“And it is too much of a coincidence that every time Anwar's name crops up in conversation, others say they don’t trust him too,” one of them said.

Indeed so, I agree with both of them but for different reasons, as I wrote earlier in my piece, “The prime minister-in-waiting must not jump the queue”...