The 1MDB debacle is no more an internal concern. It has spilled suspicions, allegations and drastic actions across the world map from Singapore to Sweden to the Middle East to the USA and several other destinations where questionable money is suspected to have been laundered.

It has brought serious disrepute and mockery at the checks and balances in several nations and the banking world which the USA must now clean up if it is determined to remain being perceived as the big brother of good governance and democracy.

Meanwhile in Malaysia we continue to see the powers-that-be who are the pinnacle of patriotism and vanguards of national pride and honour remaining tight-lipped, making statements that betray common sense logic, or still whitewashing the horrendous expose after expose of this unprecedented scale of a supposedly sovereign state fund.

In comparison to its Asean fraternity, Vietnam has risen fast from the ashes of the notorious war-ravaged politics; Myanmar is beating a pathway of hope; the Philippines is all set to re-model its nation-building using its Davos success story with President Rodrigo Duterte on the warpath; and Indonesia has taken speed, leaving the past, corrupt regime in the dust.

But this so-called ‘1Malaysia’ crafted by the country’s prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and strung with a political litany of ‘endless promises’ and ‘opportunities’ harnessed through his sovereign wealth agenda - 1MDB - is now robbing a country of common sense and honour.

And while his 1MDB continues to suffer from an avalanche of allegations and actions being taken in several nations, it appears that the very institutions designed to safeguard a country’s honour and dignity are increasingly perceived to be void of good governance and transparency.

The question in the citizens’ minds and the pain they cradle in their bosoms is what would it take for Malaysia to be another Vietnam, a Myanmar, Philippines or Indonesia?

People are also asking at the warongs (tea stalls) and market places, where are our time-honoured bastions of sovereignty? As well as, why are our independent institutions and vanguards of nationhood unable to do anything that common sense dictates and honour demands.

In any other nation that truly proclaims and upholds democratic principles of good governance and transparent public accountability, a leader would have resigned or at the least stepped aside till honour and dignity is returned to a nation.

But in Malaysia’s case, political party dominance, survival and supremacy is the deciding factor.

Indeed with each passing day and months and years, we are sinking with the rape of common sense and abandoning of honour.