This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 3, 2018 - December 9, 2018

Some very intelligent chap a long time ago started a book like this, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

No, this is not the chap who could see the future. That was Nostradamus. This is Dickens, an Englishman who had a penchant for writing about poor boys and their lives growing up in the poorer quarters of London. Reading his books makes Kenyalang Park in Kuching, or Setapak Jaya, or Chow Kit seem like heaven on earth.

What is it we can say … the heavens opened and Kenyalang Park fell out?

Now, yours truly is quite sure that Dickens could not tell the future or that he was even thinking about Malaysia in 2018 when he wrote this bit in 1859. Still, this is how a lot of Malaysians are feeling these days — it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

It is the best because after the historic May general election, many thought change would come at dawn. We would wake up to a beautiful start of the day. There would be pretty flowers in the garden, butterflies fluttering around, blue skies with white clouds, birds singing in the trees and the smell of freshly cut grass or whatever you fancy.

And the policemen would suddenly be friendly and take the “serve and protect” motto seriously instead of seeking foreign-worker victims.

So, while this euphoria is great, the truth is, the rot runs deeper than imagined.

And the ones we are hanging our hopes on to right the wrongs are probably the ones who trained the wrongdoers in the first place — the wrongdoers who lost in the last election.

Is it time to question our sanity? Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Those who were previously in power are cowering in fear — fear of being exposed for some wrongdoing or other, and those just elevated to positions of power seem to be trying to make up for the long years in the opposition, without any voice and the odds stacked firmly against them.

Well, at least the suits are more expensive and much nicer now, and even colour-coordinated.

As reporters, many of us have travelled the globe with ministers and have many war stories to share or even the scars to show for them. What is sad is that these stories and murmurings of what goes on have not changed that much from yesteryear.

So, are changes at the helm alone sufficient or should the whip be cracked at levels below the highest? Should those reporting to ministers be subject to investigation as well?

But then again, how long has it been … six or seven months?

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