I HAVE always believed that good people in politics are far too rare. And when we find them, we should treasure them.
Not because they are perfect. Not because we agree with everything they say or do. But because they are fundamentally decent people who enter public service for the right reasons and actually try to make a difference.
Anthony Loke is one of those people.
I consider him a good man. An honourable man. And without question, one of the finest ministers Malaysia has had in recent years.
He is not a man given to unnecessary theatrics. He doesn’t need to shout to be heard. He doesn’t mistake a press conference for an achievement.
He understands something that seems increasingly alien to our political culture.
The purpose of government is to govern. Not to perform.
And he has governed well.
From improving the reliability of our public transport to pushing digitalisation, challenging entrenched monopolies and bringing greater accountability to the transport sector, Loke has demonstrated what happens when competence is allowed to take precedence over political noise.
He has been a minister who gets things done.
And now he is gone.
Not because of corruption. Not because of incompetence. Not because he betrayed the public trust.
But because of a political storm surrounding a decision that was not his to make.
Let us be absolutely clear about something.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s conditional pardon, allowing him to serve the remainder of his current sentence under house arrest, was granted by His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong through the constitutional Pardons Board process.
It was not a decision made by Anthony Loke. Nor was it a decision of the cabinet.
The power of pardon rests with the King under our Federal Constitution.
One may disagree with the outcome. I certainly understand why many Malaysians do.
But disagreeing with a decision does not give us licence to abandon reason, constitutional understanding or common sense.
And it certainly should not require us to sacrifice one of the most effective ministers we have.
Yet somehow, that is precisely where we have arrived.
I would have hoped that the public, and particularly members and supporters of the DAP, would have understood this distinction.
I would have hoped that they would have recognised the enormous value of having Anthony Loke in the Cabinet.
Instead, we have witnessed yet another episode of what is becoming a deeply troubling Malaysian political disease.
The madness of crowds.
I have often said that there is wisdom in crowds.
But I am beginning to think we have misunderstood what that means.
The wisdom of crowds does not come from a thousand people shouting the same thing.
It does not come from outrage being repeated until it becomes accepted as truth.
It does not come from people feeding off one another’s anger until the loudest voice becomes the only voice anyone can hear.
That is not wisdom.
That is collective mania.
Real wisdom emerges when people think independently, challenge assumptions, engage in honest debate, listen to different perspectives and then bring their collective intelligence together.
That is the wisdom of crowds.
What we increasingly have in Malaysia are manic crowds.
And unfortunately, far too many of them exist within every political party.
People who demand absolute positions on complicated issues. People who see compromise as betrayal. People who mistake political purity for political wisdom.
And people who seem to believe that the louder they shout, the more principled they become.
The tragedy is that these crowds force otherwise sensible politicians into making foolish statements, taking unnecessary positions and, worst of all, making promises that should never have been made.
Promises that eventually trap them.
I respect Anthony Loke for keeping his word.
But I wish he had never been placed in a position where keeping that word meant depriving Malaysia of his service.
There is an enormous difference between being principled and being forced into symbolic gestures to satisfy political expectations.
And we need to start recognising that difference.
Because the people who pay the price are not the loudest voices.
They are the ordinary Malaysians.
The vast, sensible, largely silent majority.
The people who wake up every morning, send their children to school, go to work, run their businesses, struggle with the cost of living and simply want a government that functions.
They are not interested in political theatre.
They want trains that run. Roads that work. Hospitals that heal. Schools that educate. An economy that creates opportunity.
They want competent people doing competent things.
And they deserve exactly that.
Yet their voices are increasingly drowned out by another particularly unpleasant phenomenon of our times.
The keyboard warriors.
Those courageous souls who appear to possess unlimited bravery from behind a screen but remarkably little of it when asked to stand up in the real world.
They attack. They provoke. They insult. They manufacture outrage.
They turn every disagreement into a betrayal and every compromise into a conspiracy.
And then they sit back, enjoying the chaos they have helped create.
Of course, criticism is essential to democracy. I have spent much of my life defending the right of people to question those in power.
But there is a difference between criticism intended to improve our country and noise intended merely to inflame it.
One requires thought.
The other requires only a keyboard.
And sadly, we seem to have an abundance of the latter.
We must also be honest about Najib.
He is not an innocent man who has suddenly been vindicated.
He is a convicted criminal.
His conditional house arrest does not erase his conviction. It does not rewrite history. And it does not absolve him of accountability.
He also faces a separate 15-year prison sentence arising from the 1MDB case, which remains subject to appeal.
Under the present court order, he is due to return to prison when his current sentence ends in August 2028, unless the legal position changes.
So let us understand the extraordinary absurdity of where we find ourselves.
A convicted former prime minister goes home under a conditional royal pardon.
And one of Malaysia’s best-performing ministers goes home because of it.
What exactly have the Malaysian people gained from this exchange?
What great victory has been achieved?
What injustice has been corrected by removing Anthony Loke from the Cabinet?
Who benefits?
Certainly not the millions of Malaysians who depend on the work of his ministry.
Certainly not the country.
And I would argue, not even the DAP. Because political parties should be judged not merely by the positions they take, but by the good they deliver.
And Anthony Loke has delivered.
I know there will be those who disagree with me.
That is their right.
But I would ask them one simple question.
Are we trying to build a better Malaysia, or are we simply trying to win the next argument?
Because those are not always the same thing.
I have spent much of my life believing in pragmatic idealism.
The belief that we must never abandon our principles, but must also have the wisdom to understand how best to achieve them.
Principles without pragmatism can become self-righteousness.
Pragmatism without principles becomes opportunism.
We need both.
And we need leaders who understand both.
Anthony Loke, in my view, is one of them.
Which is why his departure is not something we should accept with a shrug of the shoulders and move on from.
It is a massive loss.
And it should trouble every Malaysian who believes that good governance matters more than political posturing.
But perhaps something good can still emerge from this unfortunate episode.
Perhaps it is time for the silent majority to stop being so silent.
Perhaps it is time for those Malaysians who are thoughtful, reasonable, fair-minded and genuinely concerned about the future of this country to make themselves heard.
Not by screaming louder than the manic crowds.
But by speaking with greater clarity, greater conviction and greater collective purpose.
I want to see Malaysians, regardless of political affiliation, stand up and say that we value competence.
That we value integrity.
That we value public service.
That we do not believe good ministers should become casualties of political noise.
And that we want Anthony Loke back in the Cabinet.
Not because he belongs to the DAP.
Not because we agree with every position he has taken.
But because Malaysia needs people like him.
I respect his decision to resign. I respect that he believes he is honouring his word.
But I would also say this to Anthony.
Your work is not finished.
Your country still needs you.
And sometimes the greatest demonstration of principle is not walking away, but finding the courage to return when there is still important work to be done.
I hope Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the DAP leadership and Anthony Loke himself will eventually find a way to make that possible.
And I hope Malaysians will give them the space to do so.
Without another circus.
Without another round of manufactured outrage.
Without demanding another unnecessary political sacrifice.
We have spent far too many years allowing the loudest minorities to dictate the direction of our national conversation.
It is time to change that.
It is time for Malaysians to grow up.
All of us.
Myself included.
Because none of us is immune to anger, frustration or the temptation to join a crowd when emotions are running high.
We are all capable of showing the worst of ourselves when we surrender our independent judgement to the passions of a group.
But we are also capable of something extraordinary when we think, listen and act together.
That is the Malaysia I still believe in.
A Malaysia where the wisdom of the crowd is more powerful than the madness of the mob.
Where good people are encouraged to serve rather than punished for serving.
Where governing is not made impossible by those who have never had to shoulder the responsibility of governing.
And where the silent majority finally understands that silence is not always a virtue.
Sometimes silence allows foolishness to prevail.
Sometimes silence allows good people to be pushed aside.
And sometimes silence becomes our own contribution to the very problems we complain about.
So let us speak.
Let us make our voices heard.
Critical reason must be amplified until it becomes louder than outrage.
Let competence, decency and common sense once again become the measures by which we judge our leaders.
And let us make it clear that we want Anthony Loke back doing the job he has done so well.
Because Malaysia cannot afford to keep losing good people to bad politics.
And because, at some point, the sensible majority must stop watching from the sidelines and start shaping the country we all deserve.
The madness of crowds has had its moment.
Now let the wisdom of the people be heard.
Louder. Clearer. Together. – November 12, 2026
Datuk Dr Vinod Sekhar is the chairman of The Vibes and The Petra Group
.JPG)
.jpeg)
