Driving along Jalan Dato Abu Bakar towards Jalan Universiti in Petaling Jaya at 8.15pm recently, I was surprised to find that there was a snarl-up leading towards the Jalan Universiti roundabout. This is usually a quiet time on the road, so I was wondering whether there had been an accident further

along.

After inching along for a protracted period, I was gob smacked to find that the left lane just before the roundabout had been coned off, and there were cars parked along this stretch. There were no less than three traffic policemen waving cars along. The apparent reason was that there was an festive open house at one of the large bungalows just before the roundabout.

The questions running through my mind were: Who is this big wig that he can inconvenience the public for his private function? Is he paying for the cost of three policemen to be his traffic wardens? What rank does one have to have in this society to warrant such special treatment - Datuk? Tan Sri? Datuk Seri? Tun? Or just the ability to spread a little money around?

It is really quite sad that our 'leaders' can treat the people with such impunity. They think nothing of inconveniencing them for their own selfish purposes. But then isn't this the end result of a community that values appearance above substance?

Lest we forget, let us recall that the word 'minister' comes from the Latin word minus , i.e. the person is 'less' than others, adopting the posture of a servant to discharge his duty.

I wonder how many of our 'ministers' have ever considered this.