I'll tell a short story today. I'll start with a short story within this story, fictional not fact.

An English professor was teaching a class of high school students the finer points on story creation and writing.

In summary, he told the aspiring Nobel laureates that for a short story to succeed, it must feature four elements, namely: sex, since humankind came about with this first essential act between man and woman; religion, for this provides the guide to everyday living; mystery, for it creates suspense and hence holds the reader's interest; and finally, brevity, by the definition of "short".

The class was then set to each write a short story. After a while, a student was spied looking out of the window watching the lasses go by and listening to the music of the birds and the bees in the courtyard outside.

The professor went to the lad lost in his happy world, tapped on his shoulder, enquiring oh-so-politely: "Young man, are you finished?"

"Yes, sir," replied the O' Henry-ish character as he handed over a single page of paper.

On it was this entry: "The Princess of Wales is pregnant; Oh God, I wonder who did it!"

Now, may I be bold to attempt fulfilling all the four elements of a good short story that threads through two "resignations" - one a few days old and the other a few months - involving two national leaders.

May I indulge followers of Ruminations with a quick recall on the saga of the MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik's on-and-off resignation as transport minister. It was clearly stated as a "final and irreversible decision" when Ling announced his decision, saying that 14 years of national service was a good record to ride off with into the sunset like a valiant cowboy.

After some charade and Chinese wayang, the protagonist did an about-turn to heed the "calls of the people and community" to continue to serve. His ride into the sunset became a ride he took us - the people of Malaysia - along for a three-week mind game involving his own political survival while we paid the ticket price.

The mystery still to be unravelled todate is: "Was there really a resignation letter from Ling at all?"

The Mentri Besar of Selangor up till Thursday, Abu Hassan Omar did not engage in any wayang or sandiwara. He went with some family members to meet Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday to hand in his resignation, citing "health reasons" and wanting to spend more time with family.

At 60, Abu Hassan is surely entitled to think more about family. After dedicating 37 years in government and political service, Abu Hassan said, rightfully, he had contributed a greater part of his life towards serving the government, religion, race and nation.

However, he regretted that some attacked him via poison pen letters, circulated before last May's Umno party elections, and this did not stop even after the party assembly, where Abu Hassan failed in his bid for a vice-president's post.

The story contained in the poison pen letters found its way to a Jakarta-based newspaper, Jawa Pos, on July 7, and was also given a run for its "juicy" contents in a local Malay tabloid called Kritik.

The details related to the marriage of a sister-in-law of Abu Hassan about 11 years ago to a Chinese man, reportedly named Abu Hassan Tan Abdullah. The couple reportedly gave birth to a child now studying in a Kuala Lumpur school.

However, the press reports insinuated that the true parentage of the child was in question, challenging Abu Hassan to go for a DNA test (as did former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim) to remove any suspicion.

And one of the Barisan Alternatif leaders tried to raise this issue for debate at the Selangor state assembly meeting on Monday but this was rejected ([#1]Dewan elak 'skandal seks' MB Selangor[/#], 7 Ogos).

So the mystery remains.

If the truth be told, oft times it will be stranger than fiction.