I was contemplating going to the movies last night, but eventually decided that watching the midnight news would be more entertaining.

I mean, which movie in town would incorporate plots of a politician being accused of sodomising a good-looking university drop-out with another being accused of involvement in the blowing up of a beautiful young foreign woman over a submarine deal? And of course, surrounding that intrigue are also less major plots like private investigators proudly making statutory declarations but timidly retracting them within 24 hours and a retired prime minister yelling his throat out about the way he thinks things should be whilst nobody bothers to listen.

Could Hancock or the friendly green monster (The Incredible Hulk) be more engaging than this? No way. Reading the daily newspapers in Malaysia now is akin to treating one's self to a fifty-ringgit John Grisham novel from the nearest Borders Bookstore.

Most of my friends would find me quiet about such current affairs. I am quiet because I choose to be. But it by no means indicates that I am apathetic about what is happening. What it does indicate is that whilst the Malaysian populace is analysing and interpreting these events in one way, these affairs are provoking my mind to think in another way. It is provoking a spirit of self-critique in me.

So whilst I entreat myself to this Malaysian panorama, I'm also asking myself (in the same breath) if politics in many Christian circles that I know is different from the kind of saga we're witnessing in the larger political scheme (pun not intended) of the country. Plots, schemes, self-centredness, every person guarding his own arse at the expense of others - never seen that in high-level ecclesial politics? Look closer.