I refer to the Malaysiakini report Confirmed! BN not contesting Penanti .

The real issue is not that BN is afraid of losing the Penanti by election, which they will if they stand. But the actual issue is that the BN government spends between RM100 - RM200 million in every by-election for ‘express projects' that are parachuted onto the constituency purportedly to buy votes.

Everyone knows the colossal amount of projects an area gets in a by-election. No wonder it is popularly believed that in order to get meaningful development, an elected representative is worth much more dead than alive and serving.

This is what PM Najib is saying - BN is not interested ‘to waste of public funds' if they stand for the by-election. They rather use the funds to send more BN leaders to Disneyland, maybe.

There are two reason if you microscope the issue.

Firstly, the constituency in question - Penanti - is under the Permatang Pauh constituency that BN had fought extremely hard for in elections and in the courts but never could get anywhere near it. Therefore BN must be thinking, giving away projects to the alleged ‘unforgiving and ungrateful voters' in that constituency would be a waste of funds.

They have tried many times before. All the heavyweights they parachuted down there to win votes failed. Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin's last election boast about burying Anwar Ibrahim's political future evaporated into thin air

The Permatang Pauh by-election result gave Khairy and other BN leaders, Najib included, a ‘tight slap on their face'. So this time around, BN decided it is time to get smarter.

Secondly, BN knows for sure, they will lose. It is already a 5-0 score for by-election bouts on the mainland. Yes, BN won one in Borneo but that is because the people there are not exposed to high-traffic information like here in the mainland.

The people there are illiterate, very simple, very unsuspecting, naïve and raw. They customarily believe whatever their existing community leaders tell them. ‘Buying' these leaders for BN is dirt cheap.

Making the score 6-0 in Penanti whether or not BN fights it out, will be sheer embarrassment for new PM Najib. It will actually spell ‘denunciation and rejection' of his leadership. So, having no way out, not standing will mean they will have the inevitable excuse of saying, ‘We did not fight, so we never lost'.

Malaysians are more often than not perplexed by PM Najib's reasoning that the Penanti by-election is a political game Pakatan is playing. What then is BN playing in the Perak fiasco? It is the most horrendous political game any politician can play.

Buying over the opposition, misusing the Perak royalty's prerogatives and shamelessly manhandling the speaker elected by the state assembly? In doing so, Najib not only fell pretty low in the peoples' opinion, he also brought the Perak ruler's eminence from the highest ever in the history of Malaysia to the lowest ever. Poor Sultan Azlan Shah.

Now Najib is trying to hoodwink the Malaysian people saying it is up to the Perak sultan to dissolve the Perak assembly. Can the sultan do it himself? No, the menteri besar must first ask for it.

So, why is Zambry not asking the sultan to dissolve the assembly so that the people get to decide whom actually they prefer to rule Perak? This shameful episode was generated alone by Najib's infamous and immoral political coup d'état. No one else is to be blamed.

The police? You saw for yourself how they mercilessly trashed human rights gatherings all over the country, made a mockery of guarantees spelled out in the nation's constitution and the side they vehemently took during the Perak ignominy.

How high, mighty and supercilious the police have become can be clearly seen from the actions of the Brickfields OCPD ACP Wan Abdul Bari (one must see the video ). How wearing a T-shirt bearing the words in bold ‘Head Hunter', he shouted at a peaceful group of human rights lawyers and arrested them with impunity.

God knows if BN will now reward him with a higher post to become probably the next IGP.

The judiciary? In recent judgments on the same issue see how fast it delivered rulings for the BN. It speaks for itself. Judges have even started even giving quick verdicts fearing a case could end up academic. Only God knows what will happen to all these political slaves and their cohorts when Pakatan takes over government after the next general elections.

When did BN start slipping? First when Mahathir acted dictatorially to unceremoniously admonish Anwar. But the real damage to BN's reputation came from the police actions and the judicial circus surrounding Anwar's case. Still, nobody did greater damage to BN than Najib's own relative, Hishamuddin Hussein when he arrogantly challenged the people with his keris mania aided by his big-mouthed deputy.

Now, he being the Home Minister, one can envisage what the compromised police, the seemingly executive bearing judiciary plus the selective prosecution by the MACC will finally produce.

In one of the first speeches Najib gave upon becoming PM, he said that the era of ‘the government knows best is over'. But then why is he still not listening to the public's cries?

The currents against him are growing stronger by the day. Between winning the people's votes and ‘head hunting' to know where BN's roll will finally stop, one just has to read the writing on the wall.

Has torment ever won hearts?