When the mice are away, Nazri(the Cat) comes out to play.

I hope, Nazri isn't talking on behalf of the PM. I hope, he is on a frolic of his own. Because, if he does speak on behalf of the PM- the permission given is vastly out of sync with the character of a person responsible for coming up with the One Malaysia concept, KRAs and implementation of inherited KPIs. The permission represents recklessness and light thinking- while only serious and meticulous planning results in the creation of such concepts.

The way the government is handling this Allah issue, if what Nazri said is true, shows the government is clueless as how to deal with the matter. It goes along the way, solving issues as matters of expediencies.

This kind of management style isn't like MBO or something along that genre. Indeed, the way the government handles this issue is as though, it thinks of something as it goes along. This kind of thinking isn't culled from books like Blue Ocean Strategy which the PM favours or some lessons imparted by management thinkers.

If I were to describe the management style- it's the management style of Captain Jack Sparrow. In the film Pirates of the Caribbean, Sparrow thinks of a game plan as he goes along.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has described the management style of the government succinctly:-

As a mark of our decline, at some point in our recent history the government itself began to speak the language of sensitivities. In the controversy over whether Christians are allowed to use the term "Allah" the government talks about managing sentiment when it should be talking about what is the right thing to do. This is what government sounds like when a political system and its leadership have come unstuck from the rule of law. IT GOES FROM ISSUE TO ISSUE, HOSTAGE TO THE BRINKSMANSHIP OF SENSITIVITIES. Small matters threaten to erupt into racial conflict. The government of a multiracial society that cannot rise above sentiment is clearly too weak or too self-interested to hold the country together. It has lost credibility and legitimacy. The regime is in crisis.

This is Captain Jack Sparrow's kind of management style- going from issues to issues, solving them as expediencies. The management style suggests no underlying, stable principles. While I agree with Tengku's description and observations, I do not over elements which he accepts as underlying principles. To him, it's the rule of law and doing what is right. Incidentally, doing what is right is the calling of the leader. Obviously by not doing what is right, the present government has no leadership.

Doing the right thing calls on the Prime Minister to bring closure to this issue but not in the way Nazri does- appeasing the voters in the fixed deposit states. If Allah cannot be used by Catholics in West Malaysia, it cannot so too in East Malaysia. There is only One Allah not Two. But we should not be too hard on a person known more for his outbursts and almost nightly sojourns at the watering holes in Shangri-La should we? Yes we shouldn't be too hard on salon believers, Gauche caviar , Chardonnay Muslims and members of the chattering class appearing on 101 East al Jazeera. The only thing worth seeing there was perhaps the interviewer.

Doing the right thing requires the PM to call for a congregation of the national council on fatwas, or something like a national council of muftis, national council of ulamas to state once and for all, the views of Muslims over this Allah issue. The principles of Aqidah and Tauheed are not less underlying principles such as doing the right thing and rules of law expounded by Tengku Razaleigh. Indeed, they are more relevant as regards matters of the Islamic religion than Tengku Razaleigh's rule of law and doing the right things.

I want to get away from the Allah issue. But it doesn't die down. This time Nazri Aziz, the minister who has this penchant for shooting from the hip tells everyone, that Allah can be used in East Malaysia. By his own admission he has been to an Iban Church and heard the word Allah spoken of. He has no problems with it.

If Nazri comes out with the government stand on the basis of having no problem when visiting and Iban Church, God Allah save us! Is this a decision based on an underlying principle? You are going there to do some balls licking fearing you lose the fixed deposit states.

Hallelujah!

I hope this declaration by Nazri isn't a frolic of his own. But it does not matter, if it's done in the course of his duty as His Majesty's Minister, then his boss or his employer is vicariously liable or responsible. We are being reasonable therefore to infer than Nazri's declaration received the blessings of the Prime Minister.

Please decide Mr. Prime Minister.