Malaysia’s affirmative action policies may prove costly for the country’s future economic and ideological shape, with foreign and domestic (especially Chinese-Malaysian) investors taking away their capital and many of the best educated and qualified Chinese- and Indian-Malaysians migrating to countries such as Australia.

The ability to employ high-tech medicine to preserve life has outrun society’s current capacity to decide who should use it and for how long. A wider public debate is needed about death, dying and the withdrawal and withholding of care.

No longer does politics seem to have the impact on a world that politicians want to change for the better. Instead, it has become an endless chore of news grabs, pseudo debates, and media posturing.