A few disturbing and interesting reports in the Malaysian media, including malaysiakini, this past week - some of which received comment, some which escaped comment.

Umno Youth information chief Azimi Daim's Malays are the masters of the land comment was more than a comment; it was a jibe and a threat and it should be roundly condemned as repugnant and ignorant - apart from being, as Dapsy said, "racist, feudalistic, insensitive and outrageous" as well.

Interesting that Azimi's comments weren't considered "seditious". Equally interesting: his mindless trite incurred no rebuke from Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi or Azimi's immediate boss Hishamuddin Tun Hussein.

There's a law for o­ne group and another for others.

Then there was the story that Anwar Ibrahim's appeal would be an "acid test" for Abdullah Badawi. But Fahri Azzat is dead right when he cautions that Badawi should butt out and let the judiciary - for what it's worth - deal with the matter.

Truth is, Anwar never received a fair and open hearing before, so why should it be different this time around? The judiciary is highly politicised under the Mahathir regime. You could tell the court's judgment at the time of arrest.

Badawi's Mr Nice Guy image that the mainstream media has been falling over itself to peddle, may just get so badly tarnished if he interferes in Anwar's forthcoming hearing.

But Raja Petra's call o­n the timing of Anwar's hearing was interesting and cogent, heralding, in my view, vast and important implications for the future shape of Malay politics particularly, though little else for Malaysian politics generally.

Then there's the story o­n Badawi's speech where he slammed "the malaise affecting Malaysia that may well jeopardise our way forward is a case of having first world infrastructure and third world mentality".

He got the first part right but the second part was in poor taste, condescending and ignorant of other third and fourth world nations where the socio-economic and political problems hampering their development are historically specific to individual cases and much more dire.

The other story was the o­ne by Agence France Presse where it was alluded to, even if o­nly in a metaphorical sense, that Badawi's takeover of Malaysia's premiership at end October would be a "piece of cake".

Don't think so. Not by a long shot. Certainly not when you look closely at the political, social and economic problems inside Malaysia, and the powerful challenges posed for Malaysian policy by regional and international developments.

I liken the Malaysian government to Australia's, both of which are often pretentious since both try punching well above their weight.

The problems, including policy matters - that'll be the "acid test" for Badawi, not Anwar's upcoming hearing. Fine, hang o­n to Mahathir's 'Vision-2020' hype, but by the criticisms Badawi offered to his audience at the Oxbridge Society, many hurdles need to be overcome first, most of which surround contradictory internal dynamics of corruption, nepotism and cronyism, enfranchised by power and class politics o­n the o­ne hand, and race politics o­n the other hand.

Then you have individuals like Azimi with their feudalistic mind that propel a regressive bureaucratism, replete with the mechanisms of co-optation, coercion and control of 'society' (if 'society' exists) through patron-clientilism and authoritarian state structures and institutions.

One other interesting story: MCA's Ling Liong Sik says Maths and Science exams in Chinese schools will be in Chinese, and not in English. Guess he doesn't have much confidence the teaching of these subjects in English are worth the hype that surrounded them for months earlier. I'd always thought the policy was another o­ne of the government's silly half-hour whims of grandeur and importance. It was always doomed to fail. There's an even greater chance of this now.

And Badawi late last year had threatened to slap critics of the policy with sedition. You just can't say anything in Malaysia - unless you're some honcho from Umno Youth. Then you'll get away with murder.

'Mr Nice Guy' has his work cut out for him. and I wish him luck. But, strewth, I'm not holding my breath for fundamental changes at any time soon. Or even later.

Why? Compare the speeches Badawi has been making lately with those that Mahathir had made in 1981-3, before the o­nset of the biting recession which changed policy almost overnight and further embedded the very problems that have been emerging in Malaysia since the Asian economic crisis.