While Malaysians are bewildered by many Statutory Declaration (SD), many sexual allegations (be it natural or unnatural sex), inflation woes which is expected to exceed 6%, political instability, worldwide economic slowdown, domino effect as a consequence of the recent fuel price hike, there is one absolute silent winner out there.

Certainly, average joes like you and me are the biggest loser as per circumstances stated above. Like it or not, general Malaysians are screwed upside down, one way or another.

No doubt about it.

We Malaysians are a forgetful lot. We’re too indulged with conspiracy theories out there and when there are too much of them (theories), we grow suspicious of anything that’s taking place in this country and along the way, we forget about the stark problem that’s hitting us badly - the bread and butter issue.

What the Government has done to alleviate the living pressure? What measures are really implemented to allay concern about the economic downturn which is going to witness a significant surge in living cost? Are the funds allocated for the hardcore poor are well distributed among them?

Many unanswered questions.

Then again, contrary to popular belief, the biggest beneficiary is neither the ex nor the current deputy prime minister as they’re too embroiled in a public tussle, which I believe it’s going to be futile and counterproductive.

Having said all that, who’s the biggest beneficiary? The PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

News is rife that Pak Lah will step down as Umno president and Prime Minister in June 2010 as it marks the end of the Ninth Malaysia Plan and he wants to implement all the projects and programmes under it before handing over power to Najib.

Sometimes, being dumb (or pretentiously dumb) can be a good thing too.

Yet another stunning revelation.

Malaysiakini reported that Private detective P Balasubramaniam today retracted his statutory declaration which had linked Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He said he was forced to make the declaration under duress and the exact person who had introduced Altantuya to Abdul Razak Baginda is he himself, not Najib!

On top of that, he produced a new Statutory Declaration (SD) to replace the previous SD, accompanied by a new lawyer, not his other lawyer Americk Sidhu, who was with him yesterday.

Welcome to the new Malaysia, a land full of conspiracy theories which never cease to amaze me since quite some times ago.

Also, since when SD has became a trend in Malaysia?

Hot air rises and the plot thickens.

The entire country is now abuzz over another latest conspiracy theory which implicated the DPM Najib Tun Razak with the murdered Mongolian case.

The mother of all bombshells was unraveled via the press conference held by PKR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim when private investigator P Balasubramaniam made the stunning revelation of how the DPM had links with Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Balasubramaniam was the PI hired by Najib’s close associate Abdul Razak Baginda to ‘handle’ Altantuya in 2006 before Altantuya was found murdered in an isolated site in Shah Alam, Selangor.

On the other hand, Najib denied the allegation and revealed by himself of his meeting with 23-year-old Saiful Bukhari Azlan a few days before he lodged a police report against Anwar, accusing the PKR leader of sodomising him.

Interestingly, when Najib was first asked about Saiful after the sodomy allegation was exposed, he didn’t reveal about the meeting, so the question is, why now? What’s the trigger point?

Having said all that, one thing which I’m quite sure is, be it Najib or Anwar, both of them are posing a very credible chance to become the next PM of Malaysia and as far as what I try to understand from the scenario above, either one of them is telling the truth and untruth, hence for either one of them to lead this country, how would you feel, seriously?

When there’re too much of conspiracy theories out there, you wouldn’t know who to believe and who is going to ruin this country, in the end of the day, the sense of hopeless starts to creep into your mind and that’s about it? 50 years of independence, just like that due to power tussle?

Is this country capable enough to withstand the imminent storm? Are these allegations are serious enough to divide the country for the "version" of the story people choose to believe?

The way I look at it, I’m afraid to say that a national crisis is looming and it’s only a matter of time, even though the flip-flop leader said everything is under control.

"The government is in a stable condition… Please, don’t get over-excited (with the rumours). Please don’t believe all these rumours. Never in my political life have I seen anything like this. There’s a new rumour (emerging) everyday to make the public scared and worried. What’s all this?" said Abdullah.

What a million dollar question by an incapacitated leader, in one way or another, hence the dog shows we’re seeing now.

It’s an unchartered path for many of us, however I’m hoping that Malaysians are resilient enough to wade through this interesting period.

As usual, the flip and the flop, courtesy of the Government under the leadership of the PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The flip:

"The first installment will be paid in the middle of the month and the second at the end of the month.

"Deductions for income tax, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and such will be made in the second installment," he told a news conference at his office here.

Asked whether the private sector should follow suit, Abdullah said: "I feel this is a good approach because it helps our employees to manage the household cashflow. This is important."

The flop:

Civil servants will not receive their salary twice monthly from next month, said Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan on Wednesday.

He said this was decided by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, thus the salary for civil servants would be paid once a month as usual.

Say first, do first, think later, retract later.

That’s how consistent our Pak Lah is.