"The whole aim of practical politics," HL Mencken once wrote, "is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

Does anyone trust a politician? Does any politician have us in mind when they run for office?

The latest 'hobgoblin' in a series of many is the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM). There seems to be a trend in Malaysian politics of vilifying Islamic movements. Take, for example, the recent arrest of KMM, another Al-Ma'unah type movement, whose existence I am still not convinced of.

If KMM exists, it should sack its public relations people for doing such a poor job because none of us have ever heard of them, and some of us claim to know of Islamic movements.

If they are 'incognito' because of their 'dangerous' motives, then they should at least have publications. After all, this is how groups win support and the groups that they are purported to support (e.g. the Aceh independence movement, the fighters in Maluku, etc.) have publications.

If they had supposedly travelled to Afghanistan to learn to "wage war", why did they call themselves Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia when the current rulers of Afghanistan (the Taliban), are involved in a fierce war with the Mujahidin in that country?

Is this another political ploy since the government sees that political aspects of Islam is gaining popularity, not only among Muslims but also among non-Muslims?

Add to this the latest ban on opposition public speeches, rallies and VCDs, which played a vital role in making the Malaysian justice a laughing stock of everyone.

Nonetheless, the burden of proof is on the police: first, that the KMM exists, is involved in so-called terrorist acts, and that the persons arrested under the ISA are implicated in such actions. If they don't do that soon, public confidence in the police will further diminish.

However the public need to make our politicians more accountable. We need to question the government and ask why they did not act against the KMM earlier? We need to question the police and the judiciary and most of all, the media's claims to honesty and neutrality.

We need to know what influence do wealthy entrepreneurs have on the government to warrant costly bailouts with public money? What is the government doing to stop the increase of crime rate in the country? We must know what they (the politicians) are doing to improve the health and public services.

These are the question we need to be asking instead of falling into tricks of practical politics.