The suspension of Umno vice-president Isa Samad aside, Dr Bal would like us to show a little faith in our prime minister's sincerity to do the right thing. It almost sounds to me like a preacher telling his congregation to have faith in God to eventually set the world straight. God has eternity to finish His job, a luxury that we can ill-afford. So, please forgive me for being a little impatient.

I believe faith is in our hands. It is our duty as citizens to bring to Pak Lah's attention to any injustice, unfairness or malpractice perpetrated by his subordinates and criticise any shortcomings in his policies. Would he have intervened if not for the public outcry over the case of Dr Edmund Terence Gomez ?

I have as much faith in Pak Lah as the next person, but this does not mean condoning any mismanagement or malfeasance or sugar-coating of a bad situation. If our leaders want molly- coddling, they should have picked another profession. What is wrong with keeping them on

their toes? I'll sing the praise when I see the results.

When Pak Lah first assumed power, people were quick to cut him some slack. But when days turned to weeks and weeks to months with still no signs of change, his apologists started creating all sorts of excuses to explain the apparent lack of progress. If we keep extending rope to our leaders, nothing will ever get done because there is little accountability, and there is no pressure to perform and no consequence to face.

When the people are unquestioning and uncritical, it creates the perfect conditions for politicians to take them for a ride. When political leaders have too much power, without much oversight or accountability, they tend to get corrupted.

Now the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya is reported to have said that whatever the government says, they follow (or something to that effect). If the head of the country's premier university thinks the role of the university is to toe the government's line, what hope is there for ordinary laymen? The universities are turned into factories of paper-pushing automatons. How is that going to help us develop a knowledge-based economy?

While Pak Lah may have diffused the Gomez affair, he actually hasn't addressed the root cause. In fact, he may have perpetuated the problem. I'm not saying he shouldn't have done what he did, but there is a lot more that needs to be done.

First of all, by intervening in the university's internal affairs, he reaffirmed that the university is just an appendage of the government. There is really no independence or autonomy, despite what the vice-chancellor claims.

Secondly, and maybe unwittingly, he created a leadership cult in that he ultimately holds the solutions to all the country's problems. This not only burdens his job load unnecessarily, but more seriously, undermines the rule of law.

The long-term solution is - as many have pointed out - to make sure we have a uniform set of criteria that is applied equally to everybody regardless of race, creed or gender. The process of evaluation must be transparent and there must be accountability for the outcome.

What we have now is rule by whims and fancies of the leaders where big boss is allowed to overrule smaller bosses without having to account for his decision, be it favourable or not to the masses. This in turn promotes cronyism where the only talent that counts is shoe-shining or apple- polishing. How is Pak Lah going to do a good job if he is surrounded by sycophants?