Repeat Performance

I'd be dumbfounded by the news from our northern neighbours were it not that the dumbness of previous events therein has rendered me immune to the oddities of Malaysian political culture. The travesty of Anwar's original imprisonment pretty much politicised my wife in the late 1990's and thus she has remained - so you might guess I've been getting quite an earful tonight. I must say, I've got a feeling this one might really backfire for those in power (and determined to remain so.)

Rather more constructively, I must say I've always had a soft spot for Anwar's The Asian Renaissance. A nice attempt to marry together key ideas from a range of cultures without the tiresome drum-beating you used to get when folk got on about Eastern Values. It's always a relief to brush up against a literate politician - though I suspect Anwar had a little team working on the book with him. But then the best politicos are marked by an ability to use others fruitfully in ways they want to be used.