I thought it was only in the land where the sun was once said to rise, but now no longer seems to, that the underworld is said to have a hand in who becomes the country's premier.
We have all heard of the Japanese Yakuza whose reach it is said, goes beyond triad activities.
Or maybe even the American Mafia who it was once whispered, could determine whether or not the US president got to stay as the president or who got in in the first place.
I don't think that we have come to this yet but, if the research by the French woman Sophie Lemiere into Malaysian gangs is anything it says, that could become a frightening prospect in the future.
It seems that the ruling coalition DUMBno & Co could be receiving help from the underworld.
That may explain why in a unguarded moment, a minister had let out that they were happy to make friends with "friendly" gangs.
And that might also explain why some of our ministers sometimes seem to speak and act like gangsters themselves.
Who are the underworld then, who are said to be lending a helping hand to the ruling coalition so as to themselves earn tickets on board the merry "lu tolong gu, gu tolong lu" ("you help me, I help you" ) Malaysian gravy train to instant wealth and swash buccaneering?
We don't know and are not told.
We don't believe that these are the small disparate gangs with fanciful names.
Some of the underworld who matter must themselves have become sophisticated business entities nowadays, wheeling and dealing big time behind so-called reputable facades.
Some of these. no doubt, at one time were content to hide their parangs, pipes and samurai swords in drain culverts or in the bushes wrapped in old newspapers waiting for the denouement of "table talks" where not only tables were turned but also lives, and if you were an innocent passerby standing in their way, then only god could help you!
Nowadays, they often put the Mafia to shame - pump you in lead in broad daylight with a nonchalance that even the unflappable swashbuckling Saint character of Leslie Charteris fame would be envious of.
If you don't believe, just check out the news of the daring broad daylight pass-by or come-in-your-face shooting incidents that so often nowadays grace our newspapers, including the infamous shooting of the former AM Bank head honco and that of a senior customs or was it an immigration officer?
Bolehland now seems like such an easy picking, for those who dare and don't care, that even foreign terrorists want in on the act as the Pom Pom incident tragically and frightfully illustrates, as security slacks and good governance takes second place.
Nowadays, it seems, you may not even need gangs, even NGOs will do to help you along.
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