“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home - all the more powerful because forbidden - terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

- Winston S Churchill, ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’

COMMENT l Apparently, by calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak, former de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim has become one the first of Churchill’s “thought mouse” to be ensnared by the Umno state.

Hurting the feelings of the Umno Big Cheese is unacceptable even though Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein grandly proclaimed , “If you don't have the ability to absorb whatever has been thrown at you, how are you going to lead the country?” at a speech launching Umno Youth's Akademi Kepimpinan Kapten Hussein.

If Zaid is charged, why not the grand master, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has said much worse?