Proverbially described as the privilege of the harlot but not, unhappily, limited to those unfortunate women. Instances of the syndrome appear frequently in different places and circumstances.

Among these: present day Malaysia, where an intolerable situation that could be resolved by the use of existing powers is being allowed to drag on and get worse by the day.

All Malaysia knows that political power is in the hands of a group which has no majority in the Parliament and no respect in the country. It also knows that the remedy exists in its own laws but that those having the power to act appear to lack either the courage or the motive to use it.

That is a recipe for anarchy where a country, already beset by a pandemic, is being bled dry by a gang of criminals without legitimate authority who refuse to test their standing; knowing that they would lose it.

Worse, there are constitutional remedies for this parlous situation but no will it seems to use them. Headless chickens come to mind.

So the moment of truth has arrived. While the population struggles against the covid plague its so called government, all safely inoculated and controlled by an invalid with a fatal physical condition, tends to nothing but its personal enrichment by plundering he public wealth.

And all this under the nose of the one person who could end the problem overnight simply by using constitutional powers. That failure cannot stem from lack of resolution. Other powers were used to put the criminal Moo in place even though none of his parliamentary colleagues wanted him. So why falter now? A simple decree removing Moo and the holding of a session of the Assembly to seal the selection of a successor would solve the problem and produce a government ready to help the people; not just themselves.

Failure to act now can bring untold future consequences. Does Moo, and those who support him, seriously think they can be elected legally to power in a general election? Pull the other one as the saying has it.

More close to the point do those keeping Moo in place think that there can never be constitutional reform which could include the abolition of traces of imperial power left behind by a long dissipated British Empire?