As I started writing this piece, I had the lyrics of Bonnie Tyler’s song in the back of my mind.

Malaysia is crying out for heroes, to save us from impending disaster, well, depending on which side of the fence’s grass is feeding you.

This is typical and natural I suppose, however in our rush to create heroes, we are making villains of past heroes now.

Many will say this is politics and moving with time is essential, but we must still not forget the misdeeds of the past.

Top of my list is Dr Mahathir Mohamad. If you ask me; he is the father of all that is wrong in Malaysia today. Every sort of malpractice, misdemeanour, illegal and unlawful government act, misuse of power, shackling of democratic rights is allegedly down to him.

Dr M had said Najib Abdul Razak was a poor student of his and did not learn anything; I vehemently disagree with this conclusion. I think Najib is Dr M’s best student, he has watched and learned from Dr M and made all the learning amplified much much bigger. He has abolished the Internal Security Act (ISA) but replaced it with tonnes of other similar statutes.

Dr M arrested people under ISA, the present power kingpins are continuously harassing opposition politician and civil society nonstop with all sorts of action, including roping in the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Dr M allegedly wasted loads of money in Perwaja Steel project and national car project, Najib allegedly just spends all of them as the budget for the PM’s Department.

Dr M flew around in a Petronas jet, Najib couldn’t be asked to keep borrowing planes from others, so they went out and bought their own, well, leased actually.

Dr M sacked Anwar Ibrahim and put him in jail, Najib has learned this is not a good idea as it makes them into martyrs. So Najib just sacks those who he doesn’t like, strips them of all their lucrative cushy government and government-linked companies (GLCs) position and then allegedly doesn’t even bother looking in their direction. So who is better at this then?

Then we have everyone hailing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the departing officers as if they have won the Nobel Peace Prize. Apart from the investigation into 1MDB and the related controversy, there was nothing great to shout about.

Remember that this is the MACC which has never owned up over the deaths of Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed and Teoh Beng Hock. Even if were suicide as MACC claimed, surely they are still responsible by allegedly being negligent.

Being found guilty in a court of law is definitely much better than being tainted with ‘committed suicide’ tag. Please explain to the two families what MACC has done to alleviate their pain and then I will join in the rejoicing of MACC now.

‘We cannot imprison a single innocent party’

Remember the adage that all legal system lives by, it’s okay to let thousands of guilty parties escape, but we cannot imprison a single innocent party. Well, these two who committed ‘suicide’ will never be able to tell their story.

How about Muhyiddin Yassin being celebrated as a saviour of democracy? Really?

This is the man who was allegedly part of the complot who drove out the extremely nice prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) we had, who freed up many democratic spaces, before the turmoil it is going through under the current administration.

Pak Lah may have been literally sleeping on the job but he was not swiping anything. If you go to his home, he serves the drinks himself, and Umno drove this poor man away. Pak Lah chose not to stay and fight as it would tear up the party and country, so Umno and Malaysia owes him at least that. See what is happening now.

Finally I come to our immediate former attorney-general (AG) Abdul Gani Patail. If you read what is being written, it is as if this guy is the justice messiah who was cruelly booted out. Mmm.

Wasn’t this person the same man who endlessly persecuted Anwar Ibrahim and many opposition figures under the Sedition Act and everything else? He got unceremoniously kicked out and lo and behold he is a hero. To be fair to Gani patail, I admire him for not saying anything against the hand that was feeding him all the time he was being fed.

He left quietly, no threat to announce bombastic exposes, no threat to spill the beans, never uttered a word against his former paymaster except one comment he made that he was healthy when asked. Now, that I admire. He was part of the system that was abusing others and when the system started abusing him, he just accepted it and left honourably.

The rest, all those who were boasting that they have explosive juicy items of gossip to reveal, all went quietly after, just a ruse to get paid off, I suppose.

Malaysia is crying out for a hero, a true hero. In our haste let’s not make yesteryear’s villain a hero today.