I should say that I have a high regard for M Bakri Musa's various essays but on this one (' Advice for PM's adviser '), I beg to differ.

I agree with him that Khairy Jamaluddin, as an aide to the PM, should be subject to public scrutiny and he must live with writings and comments about him in the mass media. That, however, does not merit Bakri being unfair (indeed almost churlish), especially when the tone of the essay is so personal.

Khairy is not the first graduate to turn politician/activist without much in between. The current DPM became Pahang mentri besar at Khairy's age (and MP much earlier than that). The current PM's only substantial non-governmental experience was during his wilderness years after1987 (as a travel agent I understand).

Anwar Ibrahim has no private sector experience whatsoever. Bill Clinton, Ewart Gladstone, Winston Churchill, Lee Kuan Yew all had negligible working experience before turning full-time politicians - they weren't all that bad. Dr Mahathir Mohamad did but looked how disastrously it all turned out in the end.

There is no hard and fast rule. In an ideal world, all our politicians should have had some useful working experience which they can bring to bear in their political careers. But the lack of it does not necessarily make them lousier politicians.

Maybe Bakri is being paternal in suggesting Khairy gets a life before losing it all in the political maelstrom. Good advice but if Pak Lah does not survive the next Umno elections - Khairy (and for that matter the rest of the PM's back office coterie in their 20s and 30s) will have their whole lifetime to go get a life.

Surely Bakri, like me, would want the PM to consolidate his position so that his tenure is not another 100-day Reform (like the infamous one of the Emperor Kuang Hsu in the late 19th century). In order to do this, the PM needs people whom he can trust to work with him to lay the foundation to get that mandate, and then reverse the excesses of the Mahathir years in earnest.

On the issue of the open letter , I agreed whole heartedly with what Bakri wrote then. Although Khairy was not in the country when the raid on malaysiakini took place and he patently does not run Umno Youth, the criticism in the letter was nevertheless valid because Khairy was the public face of the new Umno Youth which was educated, urbane, reformist, and frankly wouldn't react to all things in such an infantile manner. And again I suggest that Khairy must learn to deal with things like that regardless of whether he was personally at fault - that's politics.

But just as Khairy must do that, we, the public, must also have enough political nous to realise that Umno Youth is not a homogenous body and there is infighting there just like every other political organisation. It is also interesting to note that Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein barely got a mention during that time. Which leads me to my next point.

The reason why I would, on balance, support Khairy and the young ones being in the PM's back office notwithstanding their lack of real experience is precisely because of Hishamuddin's generation. I put it to Bakri that Pak Lah has no choice but to rely on the 20- and 30-somethings because the pickings at Hishammuddin's age group is so thin. The good ones are secured in the private sector jobs and they are unlikely to abandon their careers to root for a politician who is still fighting for legitimacy.

And lastly, Bakri's obsession with Umno Youth is really a red herring. I don't think anyone today can honestly say that they join Umno Youth because it enriches their learning experience. They do so because it is rung one in the Umno ladder. And we should take that as it is. Nobody in their right mind would join Umno Youth for the fun of it.

The one point in his essay which I think everyone should take to heart is his exhortation that we young people shouldn't be so arrogant just because we have a degree. I agree but that shouldn't apply just to young people. It is of general application. But power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely and whether this maxim is true in each instance would depend greatly on the constitution of the politician concern - not his educational or career background, achievements in the private sector, etc - just his inner self.

I don't know Khairy. I definitely do not belong to his camp - I would prefer Anwar as PM but that is another story altogether. Nor have I been asked by anyone to defend Khairy in proxy. I just think it is slightly unfair to pick Khairy out because he is from Oxford, is the PM's special assistant, married the PM's daughter and is in Umno Youth.

It would be better to scrutinise the substance and if there are failings there because the PM's aides lack worldly experience, then that's a fair point. But otherwise let's remember William Pitt the Younger became PM of Britain at the age of 24, and he was a pretty successful PM as well.

And on that note, can I say it is quite stupid to give vouchers to students so that they can go get extra tuition. If the government wants to spend more money on education, spend it on the schools - not enrich the pockets of tuition teachers. Bakri, care to comment on this?