The journey of a 1000 li

I am not sure about the Malaysiakini article Next stop, the sultans.

I know that desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures, and surely to re-invite the royalty to play a far bigger role than the constitution allows them, or to accord them a far greater political significance than they have historically merited, would be the ultimate desperate measure, a case of jumping from the pan into the fire.

I really don’t like it – why – think of a southern State, that’s why!

I am not keen to overplay the royal card; we're giving too much credit to those royals who have been trying to make themselves relevant again after they had their royal teeth de-fanged, and if I were a hockey coach or a caddy's brother, I would say, bloody rightfully so!

And I also want to ask what happened to the royalty when the previous Lord President Salleh Abbas was sacked! Did any of the Sultans or the Agong speak up for him then?

I believe that AAB will call for the GE, sooner rather than later, as things are getting worse for him. He reckons he still has the 'heartland' behind him - this plus Sabah should see him through, as he believes, and OK, he may well be right.

But the Bersih campaign has currently engendered a fairly good opposition momentum so while not expecting the 'Spirit of 69' or its results, there is sufficient dynamics for the opposition to make a reasonable impact in the GE despite the gerrymandering and postal votes.

So with such a Bersih-rised momentum, an early GE may not be so bad afterall, other than for Anwar Ibrahim who is still legally barred from participating.

There is an unrealistic temptation to fantasize a miraculous overthrowing of the establishment. I rather we think incremental but significant chipping away of the BN grip on power, so that the opposition will be better placed in the 2012-3 GE.

The journey of a 1000 li starts with the first step.