When times are bad and life gets tough, the occasional acts of bravado are a welcome relief for most Malaysians, who are fed-up with rising costs of living, public security and corruption. Many are on a lookout for a hero to lift them out - their spirits, at least - of the doom and gloom.

It may be too much to say that the lines between a true and false hero are not so clear, so much so that quite a number of action heroes have managed to get to the corner office in the corridors of power. We have MGR in India, Arnie Schwarzenegger making it as Governor of California and even Reagan became President of the US.

It is during these times that one should be wary of politicians who seek to take this opportunity to play the maverick hero, providing temporary panacea in the form by unfounded display of bravado and empty promises.

Now, how do we tell the true mavericks from the false ones? The litmus test for all politicians must surely be whether they mean what they say, and the ability to deliver on the promises. One word to describe it - Integrity.

This is a word found in most political manifestos, and yet is most abused. Wikipedia describes integrity as comprising, "perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles. A value system's abstraction depth and range of application interaction are also significant factors due to their congruence with an empirical observation. A value system may evolve over time wile retaining integrity if those who espouse the values account for an resolve inconsistencies."

From the description above, integrity has the element of consistency in the sense that what one says or does must fit what he or she has said or done in the past. It is more than just bare consistency as what the politican says must make moral sense and standing.

Politicians who twist and turn words, and those who play to the gallery by speaking one thing to an audience and another thing to another crowd will ultimately be revealed as nothing more than just playing the con game.

Sadly, one such example is the newly elected MCA deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek. His recent display of bravado by questioning the issue of "Ketuanan Melayu", and subsequent ire by his BN colleagues in Umno, has scored a few points with newly converted but ignorant fans.

The surge in Chua's popularity can be attributed to his display of political swagger by coming up against the perceived "Umno bullies" in BN. His gutsy appearance and words, in the background of his current role as MCA's head of government policy and monitoring bureau cloaks a scheming politician bent on using a populist approach to rescue his political career. It is also no secret that this is part of his strategy to win over support for his bid to topple his current party boss in the next election.

Chua has failed the Integrity Test. It is surprising that he has used the very word 'integrity' three times in his short manifesto in the past MCA election.

Back to the twin pillars of integrity. Let's put his recent Ketuanan Melayu speech to the test. It will fail on the following counts:

Firstly, he is being inconsistent by saying two different things to two different crowds at two different times. His recent speech denouncing Ketuanan Melayu was delivered at the Kancil Awards Festival, usually filled with more liberal minded people in the city involved in the arts and media industry.

One may understand the lack of a platform for him to speak since he does not hold a government position, but one needs to compare what he said here with his speech made almost 10 years ago.

In that speech about a decade ago, published by Utusan Malaysia on 27 Nov 1999 when he was still Johor exco member, Chua was addressing a crowd of Umno members of Kampong Koris, Tanjung Laboh, Kelicap, Kampung Pasir Lebar Barat and Taman Banang Jaya.

Then, he warned the largely Umno crowd to covet their unique position as the backbone of the Malays and government. What is startling is that he advised them, as a Chinese, for the Malays to preserve this right, which he himself labelled as "Ketuanan Melayu".

Make no doubt about it, his interpretation of the word Ketuanan Melayu here clearly pertains to the special rights and privileges of the Malays.

Seen here, Chua is seen to have twisted his words again when

he recanted and rephrased his words, following a rebuke by Umno's

Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, to mean "Malay leadership" instead of

"Ketuanan".

This back-peddling of his earlier statment to appease his BN colleagues from Umno is a classic display of inconsistency that plagues most politicians who lack integrity.

It stands to reason that the MCA deputy president just does not have the locus standi to stand up to champion the rights of Malaysians, much less the Chinese.

In fact, the speech which he made 10 years ago showed a scheming

politician not afraid to cast his race and Malaysians aside, thinking that they are naïve and forgetful, in the name of personal ambition.

Lon Fuller once said that "good has an inherent logic that evil

lacks". It looks like the time has come for Chua's past to finally

catch up and haunt him.