vox populi big thumbnail ‘Instead of acting for Malaysia and Malaysian interests, in front of the world press, he played petty local politics as he is wont to do. Clearly, the job is beyond the man. Old habits die hard.'

On Retract remarks, Anwar tells Anifah

Taneug: At an international press conference after the meeting with Hilary Clinton, the Foreign Minister described the DPM's position as ‘lucrative'.

This adjective will go down as a classic Freudian slip in the annals of Malaysian politics. Here we have a greenhorn given a chance on the world stage and he blew it.

Instead of acting for Malaysia and Malaysian interests, in front of the world press, he played petty local politics as he is wont to do.

Old habits die hard. You can take the man out of Malaysia but you cannot take Malaysian politics out of the man.

Next, he voluntarily brought up the matter of Altantuya murder, thereby publicising a matter which Malaysia has tried its damnest to hush up.

Clearly, the job is beyond the man. Asean prides itself with having a history of some very good foreign ministers, a few even outstanding.

We think of Carlos Rumulo, Prof Jayakumar, George Yeo, Rajaratnam, Dr Ismail, Ghazali Shafie, Ali Alatas, Kusumaatmadja, Surin Pitsurin and others.

This guy is not one of them. Who's to blame? The Foreign Ministry? After all, he is what he is, a wide-eyed boy with greatness thrust upon him.

The people at Wisma Putra, surely, they must have known it was too early to release on the world stage.

They should have gotten him some practice; a few trips to Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Mugabe-land, perhaps, for some dry runs. But no, they pushed him to the very top.

The fall is a major disgrace for the country. Now, did the guys at Wisma Putra set him up? Did the guys who were denied the high table work behind the scene?

On Makkal Sakti versus Hindraf

P Dev Anand Pillai: The proven formula always works and the people are always lured into the same trap again and again.

Here, I do agree with the MIC president in that these small parties come and then sink into oblivion once some objectives or requests have been met.

The IPF did this for many years and till the end had yet to field a candidate and convince the electorate.

Then came the Muip which will also go down the same path as time goes on. Now we have the MMSP which will be wooing for support from the Indians.

Isn't this the same old style? The people are quite used to this.

But if Hindraf persists - which I believe it will because of its world appeal which was built single-handedly by its chairperson, these little parties won't survive.

The future is in multi-racialism as race-based political advancement is a proven failure.

It only benefits those who are connected to the upper crust of the leadership. I am sure the MIC will not allow new set ups to upset their plans for the future.

On PKR man: Pakatan not doing enough for Indians

Tetraigrat: As an Indian, every time I read of reports of fellow Indian leaders (well so-called leaders) expressing dissatisfaction about the government not doing this and that and the Indians being marginalised - I only get boiled up.

To add salt to injury, you have a smart aleck (Nalla) saying that Pakatan has not done anything and that the leaders of Pakatan are playing on the sentiments of the Indians to gain support.

What have you done, Mr Nalla, for the Indians? I have yet to hear any contribution by your party to society.

When will these Indians stop blaming the opposition or even the government This is a democratic country and if a foreigner can making a living here, I don't see why an Indian can't come up.

The problem with the Indians in Malaysia is there is too many so-called political parties championing them as well as misleading them.

We are still fighting over Tamil education, the temples etc, but not looking forward towards developing the society and educating them to be self-dependent and self-reliant.

Here, a PKR-appointee as a councillor to the PJ city council lashes out Pakatan saying no help has been given to the Indian community.

These so-called leaders are so fond of making statements to degrade the very basic platform they made their political appearance on.

Looks like Thiruvenggadam might as well quit from PKR and form a BN-friendly party like Makkal Sakthi to champion himself in the name of the Indians.

On Britain's Parliament speaker quits over expenses

Yuvan: It's a pity that Michael Martin is a British politician.

If he was a Malaysian politician in the ruling party, he surely would have learned the ‘tricks of the trade' a long time ago and would continue to hold on to his political position - without any shame.

It doesn't matter if he is lousy or disgraceful. These things would not have bothered him at all. In fact, he would have been assured of a ‘promotion' with more perks and privileges.

Do we have politicians (especially in the ruling party) who sincerely care for the taxpayers moneys' here in Malaysia?

We only have politicians who have absolute disregard for public accountability and total disrespect for parliamentary decorum.

On Khir Toyo slapped with one-year suspension

Toh May Fook: I was shocked and extremely angered to be told that Khir Toyo is to be suspended from the Selangor legislative assembly.

No! This is not fair and this is real silly!

Not fair because Khir Toyo has actually contributed to the extermination of BN/Umno in Selangor.

His contribution, if I have to quantify it, is merely slightly less than the Zakaria Deros, the fellow who built a huge palace in Taman Idaman in the midst of ordinary, simple Malays.

But Khir's potential future contribution is certainly crucial to a better Malaysia considering, for example, the size of his purported palace in Shah Alam.

Silly, because from what I understand from Sun Tzu, anyone who can undermine our enemy must be treated as our friend.

No! Please do not suspend our dear brother Khir Toyo. He is simply too valuable to our dream of having a better Malaysia!