NO "hormat" for our Yang Berhormats? How tragic. It seems the vaunted MPs' identity card isn't eliciting the expected bowing and scraping upon its display to the counter staff of certain hospitals. Shocking as it may be for the people's representatives to be treated as mere ordinary mortals, what's more shocking is that they should raise a fuss about this in Parliament. The rakyat may be forgiven a wry sneer at this, given that the ostensibly honourable members of the august House have hardly disported themselves as paragons of respectful behaviour themselves lately. Setting aside the more egregious instances of outrageous antics in Parliament, what's become of the oh-so-populist contention that our present crop of MPs feel for the common folk; that the refreshing irreverence of our present Parliament evidences a rollback of the lofty arrogance of yore, when YBs looked down their patrician noses at everything from parking fees and public transport to the interminable ordeals of public-hospital waiting rooms? If indeed MPs' credentials no longer command shock and awe, they only have themselves to blame.

That said, the churlish short shrift our elected representatives claim to be receiving from the general public may be symptomatic of a creeping malaise in society. Scoffing at authority figures has become the order of the day in these times of sociopolitical change. Public protests against the establishment are the seedbeds of a new heroism. Arrest and detention are badges of valour. Those hurling unconscionable allegations against political leaders are lionised as Bravehearts, while respecting the offices and institutions of state is demeaned as the sycophancy of lickspittles. How did it get so bad? Simple. Loss of faith, especially in our political, parliamentary and judicial systems.

While all efforts are made to restore the respect without which our national institutions are rendered impotent, it is important to recognise the true cost of this erosion. The spiking crime rate this year, for instance, is not so much to be blamed on the declining global economy as on the opportunism of criminals making hay of the general loss of faith in the police. A scorned and disrespected authority loses its ability to hold the line of good behaviour. When the lately galvanised power of public protest can go so far as to threaten to rally in the nude in respect of whatever cause, "respect" is hardly the word for it. Not respecting an MP's identity would seem quite the most trivial aspect of this ugly new Malaysian disease.