A few weeks ago before Suqiu "backed down" by signing that "unequal treaty" (this is the current term used by many Mandarin-speaking Chinese in private and public discourses on Suqiu) with Umno Youth, it was said and believed that another "May 13" could happen anytime because of GPMS' provocative utterances as reported in the media.

But immediately after that "unequal treaty" was concluded, "racial tension" disappeared (hey presto!) without a trace. Newspapers, TV and radio do not report or feature "impending racial riots" anymore. It is really magical.

For the credulous and pusillanimous, we must be thankful to the "good sense" of the Umno Youth and Suqiu, and Gerakan. According to some Chinese businessmen who secretly hate Dr Mahathir Mohamad but still love Umno pragmatically or instrumentally as the bedrock of business "stability", we must be particularly grateful to Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, fondly known as Pak Lah, for his "moderation".

However, for the less credulous and less pusillanimous, the first question is actually for Pak Lah: Why did he as the home minister allow the police under his control to issue permit for GPMS' (Federation of Peninsular Malay Students) rallies and public meetings? Had the home minister lost control over the police and the Special Branch?

Pak Lah's play?

Or wasn't Pak Lah playing games too by tacitly and artfully allowing the "bad boys"of GPMS to wander around with their threats and "counter-demands", while he himself played "good guy" for the credulous and pusillanimous to seek grateful "protection"? After all, Pak Lah is not an disinterested party, so some Chinese - who have regained their composure - reason now.

Whatever the case, as Pak Lah certainly owes the nation an explanation: Why were GPMS boys and girls, and Ibrahim Ali were allowed to hold public rallies in a period when the situation was described as "tense" and "explosive"? Are they immune to laws which are only applicable to leaders, members and supporters of PAS, DAP, Keadilan and PRM?

The police, too, should account publicly for this to regain public confidence and social respectability. It should also confirm or deny the widespread speculation that its officers were involved on the side of Umno Youth and Gerakan in the secret "negotiations" with Suqiu.

However powerful or "frightening" to some people it is, its Special Branch has no business in partisan politics and normal public discourses. If any police officer wants to play politics, let him or her turun padang and masuk gelanggang (resign and enter the field) directly.

Patriotic campaign

The magic show reminds me of the hilarious "Great Patriotic Campaign against Al Gore" in late 1998. The articles in Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times were too well written and too well-timed to be the true and spontaneous "patriotic sentiment" of "the people". Like the "tense situation" mentioned just now, the "sentiment" just receded magically simultaneously after some signals from atop. It is simply unreal to the less credulous.

The magic show and its various versions and editions have been going on in this country for years, especially before general and by-elections. We are simply too familiar with them. And yet, some people still take them as real and get really frightened and worried. Why? Is ours a neurotic nation?

Perhaps we should consult MCA's Complaints Bureau chief Michael Chong who has been handling many cases of even seemingly intelligent women working in modern and urban sectors being "persuaded" by some self-styled "traditional doctors" that their bodies are possessed by some "dirty or evil spirits"; and that all they need to get rid of the "dirty and evil spirit" are to pay some money and to strip naked for them (the charlatanical male "traditional doctor") "to do the necessary" in an enclosed room, one-to-one.

Fear of unknown

It stems from human fear for the unknown. It has also to do with credulity and timidity of some people who think of themselves as "inferior" vis-a-vis others, and who do not have many trustworthy friends or relatives to consult, or are too shy or too egoistic to see a registered and properly trained doctor openly.

Again, it is all psychological. Whatever the exact nature of fear and the methods of overcoming it, the contemptible fact remains that the present regime survives on human fear, credulity and timidity of a section of the population. Is it honourable? Is it morally legitimate?

Is Mahathir going to leave behind a credulous and pusillanimous society for the whole civilised world to laugh at and to make fun of? Is he leaving behind the GPMS boys, and Ibrahim Ali and Utusan Malaysia as taxpayers' burden in the K-economy and K-society? Is that the legacy he wants to preserve in the history of modern Malaysia?

JAMES WONG WING ON, a former MP for Kampar, read political science and economics in Monash, Melbourne, Australia; he nows also writes Mandarin commentaries.