COMMENT Nurul Izzah Anwar did nothing wrong when she met with Jacel Kiram, and Sabah PKR chief Lajim Ukim is the only one who has hit the nail on the head.

What is wrong for Nurul Izzah to meet another lady who attended the same function which was organised by the government of the Philippines?

Or even for PKR vice-president Tian Chua, who introduced the two to each other. I simply cannot see the logic behind inspector-general of police Khalid Ibrahim’s instruction to investigate both Chua and Nurul over the casual meeting, or Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi, who kept repeating that it was Chua who arranged for the meeting .

It is as though they do not have better things to do such as investigating into the illegal gambling activities of alleged online betting kingpin Paul Phua Wai Seng, or how how money could be funnelled into a personal account without a single person in Umno knowing about it.

These are the questions that Malaysians are keen to know, yet there are no official answers which make sense. It is no wonder that even the Malay support for Umno has dived to a low of 30 percent , while 78 percent of Malaysians are dissatisfied with the current state of the economy. If there is an apt word to use colloquially, I would say the country is in ‘deep s**t.’

Its prime minister is facing a confidence crisis amidst the falling ringgit and rising cost of living. We are not only stuck in the middle income trap but finding ourselves in a deeper mess, with most people having to tighten their belts in order to make ends meet.

Sulu princess, since when?

By getting so gung ho about Nurul Izzah meeting Jacel, does the Malaysian government acknowledge that there is a Sulu princess in the first place?

This is a question that Umno leaders who are embroiled in the controversy should answer. It does not have to go beyond that.

It is different when Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak shook hands with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or welcome the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, who is also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China.

Officially, we do not recognise Israel as a nation, and communism is banned in Malaysia. Even over the ashes of the late Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng, there was so much brouhaha, but when Xi visited Malaysia in October 2013, the prime minister himself welcomed Xi.

Malaysian politicians can accept Xi, yet when the country’s own ambassador Dr Huang Huikang visited Petaling Street out of goodwill and helped eased the racial tension caused by the red shirt movement, there were so much fireworks in the air.

In a previous article , I expressed my concerns that the Malaysian judiciary appears to be bogged down with trivial cases; it looks like our leaders, too, are majoring in the minors.

If the Malaysian government does not, in the first place, recognise the Sulu sultanate, then there is no Sulu princess. So why kick up a big fuss?

Nurul Izzah would have committed treason only if there was a Sulu princess in a sultanate that the Malaysian government readily recognises; otherwise Jacel is just another ordinary girl. She was not the one leading the Sulu fighters into Lahad Datu.

There is no law that says a lady cannot meet another lady at a function. Even the prime minister has met with former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, so (crudely speaking) what the heck are they talking about treason?

Look into the reasons why

The Umno grassroots have to start doing some soul-searching to see why Umno is now fast becoming a four-letter word for most Malaysians who cannot care less any more when they talk about current politics.

It is not uncommon for an Indian, a Malay and a Chinese sitting down over a teh tarik session, shaking their heads as they talk about political developments.

Where will Umno be by 2018, and what will happen to this nation, if things are allowed to continue the way it goes?

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.