The AIDS virus has the potential to make the entire human population extinct. The virus particles are spread by contact with the blood or other body fluids of a carrier. This contact may occur during a sexual encounter or through the sharing of infected needles by drug addicts. An unborn child can receive the virus from an infected mother. The mechanism by which it acts makes it almost impossible to fight, because it directly attacks the immune system, destroying the primary defense of anyone infected. When the immune system becomes weak and deficient, the host is easy prey for any adventitious infection.

Though the AIDS virus is a serious threat, it is transmitted to one person at a time. Thus, limiting the transfer of body fluids from infected individuals to the healthy can control the spread of the virus. Perhaps a vaccine will be developed before the AIDS virus mutates into other forms that allow it to spread via insect vectors such as mosquitoes or fleas. The reality is that the present cost for treatment of AIDS patients places a serious strain on worldwide health facilities.

Today there is another virulent virus that is more dangerous than the AIDS virus, and it has now reached epidemic proportions. It has not been properly diagnosed, and it is spreading rapidly throughout the world. Strangely, it is promoted as being beneficial to humanity. It infects not one individual at a time, but entire countries. We watch in dismay as country after country catches this new virus. Ten million here, twenty million there, and even as many as two hundred eighty-five million in one outstanding case.

The virus seems to be centered in Malaysia, and therefore it is appropriate to name it the Malaysia Virus. Wherever Malaysian ministers travel, they expound its benefits, and soon another country shows signs of a raging infection. Whenever a foreign minister visits Malaysia, there is the danger of contagion. Just a few days ago, a representative of Australia's government returned home from Malaysia extolling the desirability of introducing the new virus. It is to be seen if the Aussie's are sufficiently astute to quarantine the infected minister.

The Malaysia Virus acts with the same clever mechanism that the AIDS virus uses, that is, it destroys the ability to mount a defense. The bedrock of any system of justice worthy of the name is the principle that everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence until guilt is proven to the satisfaction of a jury of disinterested peers. The Malaysia Virus takes away this principle, and everyone is defenseless against any specious charge that might be brought out of malice. Incarceration is immediate, typically in the dead of night, and there is no communication allowed with family or a legal representative. Torture and other mistreatment during interrogation are common, along with solitary confinement. The terms and conditions of penal servitude are not negotiable.

The Malaysia Virus is spreading with remarkable speed, and is promoted by paranoid governments in a misguided effort to maintain a public perception of political potency and perspicuity. The public, lulled by trust in the judgment of their leaders, incredibly accepts infection without a murmur. The danger of a personal infection seems remote to the trusting citizens, and those who become directly affected can be removed without much fuss. This is especially true for non-US citizens. The individuals who are taken away cannot raise any outcry, and few are trained to identify the primary cause of the infection.

The events of September 11, 2001 have tended to lower the public regard for their right of defense. The frightened governments of the world, in a pretense of providing protection against persons unknown, have unknowingly welcomed infection by the Malaysia Virus. The President of the US gave an official welcome to the Prime Minister of Malaysia in recognition of its inestimable value.

The Malaysia Virus acts immediately to render its victims helpless. It acts so swiftly that once it infects the leaders, they immediately install it into the law of the land. Enacted into law, it renders everyone defenseless before its danger is recognised. Once a country is infected, anyone who raises an outcry becomes a victim of the Malaysia Virus.

The Malaysia Virus is a mutant of an earlier virus that originated in the colonial governments of the late British Empire. The prior colonies seem to have little resistance, and the member countries of the Commonwealth are readily infected. The greatest salesman of the Malaysia Virus, other than Malaysia itself, is the United States.

The US is eager to establish close relations with other countries, in hopes that a larger pool of infection will deliver dignity to its destruction of international norms. The US reaction to the suicide bombing of the World Trade Center is a nebulous and undeclared war against person or persons unknown. The war on terrorism is an attempt to find any friends or funds of the dead offenders. The bellow of outrage covers the fact that national borders are no longer recognised. Hot pursuit is given as justification for military adventures. Regimes may be changed at will, so beneficial contracts for oil and other resources can be signed with the new regime.

In order to give some semblance of sanity to its anti-social activities in the service of global economics, the US is advocating that all countries desiring to avoid the label "evil axis" must welcome infection by the Malaysia Virus. The loyal opposition can no longer oppose from a secure platform. Thankfully, many countries are finding a means to refuse this fatal gift.