It's reached the stage where on has to pinch oneself. The once timid press is now boldly publishing letters and news reports critical of officialdom.

Not too long ago editors were reduced to nervous Nellys scanning articles for hints of sensitivity before publication. Now they can, with a nod to legal implications, bravely tread on previously forbidden territory.

They must be savouring the experience. Also one particular paper announced that the pages devoted to readers' views would be boosted.

One salivates at the prospect of a sumptuous spread of opinions on a variety of topics debated with cut and verve, qualities conspicuously absent from Parliament. Truth to tell the opinions carried in those pages have more depth and make better sense than those conducted in Parliament although signs are evolving that the House may yet win the adjective of August.

However, this opening up can be likened to the shifting of social and tectonic plates and those affected may feel as though they are being enveloped by malevolent events. This was highlighted most dramatically by the scandal of the ear squat in a police lock-up which stirred up a hornet's nest of public protest.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan's angry outburst at the person, who caught the whole shameful episode on a cell phone, can be attributed to the basic tribal instinct, right or wrong standing by his people.

Unfortunately for him, he incurred the wrath of a swath of the public that promptly sank needles into him for what they perceived as getting his priority wrong. Obviously caught off balance by the rapidly changing environment, the police may be in a state of bewilderment as the known world crumbles around their ears.

Musa's knee jerk response, too, worsened the case for the police in that it reinforced the widely held public belief, rightly or wrongly, they were a power unto themselves. The black eye of a powerful political leader while in police custody after his fall from grace vividly exemplifies this view.

Blunt advice

Deputy Interior Security Minister Noh Omar in his turn jumped into the fray, only to get his comeuppance. His blunt advice to those unhappy with the way things were done here was not to visit the country.

This was promptly smacked down by his boss, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who ticked him off by saying that Noh should not have said that.

In the heat of the moment he must have forgotten that tourism accounts for a huge chunk of the country's revenue and China's contribution is not to be sniffed at.

Noh quickly retracted his statement but must've been still smarting when later, in the Dewan Rakyat, took cudgel to an opposition party. He accused the DAP of having blown up the issue by exposing the matter in Parliament.

He said the MCA had informed the inspector-general of police about the clip and the DAP action had come before investigations could be initiated.

Which charge sounds rather limp as the Barisan Nasional's reaction might not have been much different under similar circumstances? Scoring political goals is the nature of the species.

Anyway, his senior, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, had earlier acknowledged that the DAP had done nothing wrong.

The ear squat incident turned mysterious when it was revealed that the affected detainee was in fact local and, not a Chinese national. The question on most lips was what was the profit in getting people all knotted up in their knickers over the issue instead of revealing the facts in the first place? Something sinister was suspected.

That incident itself came hot on the heels of the case involving three Chinese nationals married to Malaysians, and one local, who allegedly were ill-treated by the police and, later, harassed at an ungodly hour. This had already created a highly charged atmosphere.

Finally Home Minister Azmi Khalid had to visit Beijing to reassure the Chinese authorities that Kuala Lumpur was not profiling Chinese nationals. Generally speaking it still has to sink in that IT has turned the world into a fish bowl.

In the meantime a high-powered commission of inquiry has concluded its probe into the lockup incident and the outcome is expected to be announced next month.

Withdrawal symptoms

That may provide some relief to society's nervous system under heavy stress from the impact of the changes sweeping the country. Or to put in another way the system is being purged of toxins and the patient is suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

The shriveling of income derived from extra-curricular activities can be excruciating and frustrating. The offspring of such driven emotions are often irrational acts like those of the policemen reportedly involved in the affair of the four Chinese nationals.

Columnists and Members of Parliament have joined the battle over the ear squat affair, taking sides according to their own inclinations. Among them is former top cop Hanif Omar who writes for The Sunday Star and who is best placed to illuminate the issue.

Aside from sketching a history of the police related to this issue as well a list of recent cases of police misconduct, he concluded by tossing into the ring the question whether the country was ready for the more exacting standards of developed nations.

If so, changing the way of teaching police officers, the law and their trust powers, becomes imperative, he added.

Through the dust kicked up by both controversies it can be discerned that the tight reins on the press have been loosened to mobilise the public as a force for change. And surely, the bureaucracy as well others in public life, must be feeling the wind whistling up their posteriors at what this portends and so resistance stiffens.

However, changes appear to be gathering pace and strength which saw one Cabinet minister left with no option except resignation, another seasoned politician and minister coming under fire from both sides of the House. Both apocalyptical signs.

That Nazri and Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, both known for their verbal pyrotechnic exchanges, can sit together as president and deputy respectively of the House's joint Human Rights Caucus strikes as yet another remarkable turn of affairs.

These are momentous events in the history of the country and one to be welcomed especially when the opposition is not treated as a deadly enemy. But finally accorded the long sought for recognition of His Majesty's loyal opposition.

The cards seem to be falling in the direction of a broad based democracy which the public can identify with and not an elitist plaything. Here's hoping they fall true.

It is in the changing, those things find purpose - Greek philosopher Heraclites, 6 BC.