The expression of thought in language clear as a window pane is not a quality that’s in terribly abundant supply in Malaysian politics. An hour’s conversation with Sivarasa Rasiah, the PKR parliamentary candidate for Subang, may entice one to conclude that clear convictions and lucid articulation are, after all, not that rare to find.

Tangled syntax, hemming, hawing pauses, the pumping of pompous sound and fury into otherwise bland statements of the obvious – all signs of a lack of inner clarity – are conspicuous by their absence in this Rhodes scholar’s discourse.

Not even steady interruptions to take mobile phone calls can skew the pellucid flow of his conversation. A mere, “Where were we?” suffices to recover the lost thread and for the chat to resume its crystalline trails.

If a gift for vividness is a compelling virtue in politics, then Sivarasa ought to be home and dry in his third quest for parliamentary representation.