Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz has now come out to admit that there is no separation of powers in the various branches of the Malaysian government, namely the judiciary, the legislative and the executive.

Finally, no more s andiwara , no more hiding behind lies that the judiciary decides what it wills and that the judges are independent and without bias.

In Nazri's eyes and that of the Barisan Nasional government, separation of powers is 'too idealistic'. I presume that in his political ideology, the executive holds the ultimate and supreme power and only then can 'national security' be assured in our country.

Such a statement from the government shows both its insecurity and lack of respect for the constitution of Malaysia besides lacking an understanding of the parliamentarian system of democracy.

The whole idea of having separation of powers in the legislative, judiciary and executive is so that there are checks and balances. What Nazri has confirmed is that in Malaysia, the executive has absolute influence over the judiciary - and obviously the legislative with a majority in parliament.

That means that it does what it wills with no accountablity to anyone. The rakyat has long believed this to be the case as seen during the Mahathir years when mega projects and policies were implemented hastily and without due diligence resulting in cronyism and corruption.

I have always wondered what national security means in Malaysia and have, in fact, come up with my own definition.

National security means the security of the Barisan Nasional government and any threat to national security would naturally mean a threat to the ruling coalition. This is parliamentary democracy a la Malaysia.

Thank you, Nazri, for clarifying and confirming our suspicion that there is no, and has never been, any separation of powers in Malaysia.