How reforms, like Rome, must be built incrementally

THE history of Malaya, and ultimately Malaysia, is replete with examples of constant calls for reforms. Whether the spear of reforms is aimed at education, the mindset of Malays or Malaysians, the calls for change are endless.

This tradition comports not with Harold Lasswell's conception of politics as a process of “who gets what, when and why” but David Easton's idea of “politics as the authoritative allocation of values”.