Hurlyburly at Kota Baru airport this morning

The first and immediate impression of the reported incident is that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad suffers yet another 'unfair' and 'highhanded' treatment again by the administration of his successor. Certainly, the impression may turn out to be true in reality.

However, there is another cynical opinion among my friends who holds that it is a self-staged sandiwara on the part of some artful supporters of Tun to create that impression to gain sympathy and make the administration of his 'wrongly chosen' successor looks bad and, if this observation is proven true, the kind of persons are known as agent provocateurs.

Only independent and open investigation can reveal the truth.

Meanwhile, I think we must not over-react and fall into traps set by those who want to create a popular impression of a worsening security situation to justify state repression and restriction on the freedom of speech, especially in the cyberspace.