The Pledge, The Turn & The Prestige

“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't.

The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled.

But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige." - Cutter - Michael Caine (The Prestige, 2006)

Now this was what Paklah said in Dubai yesterday;

DUBAI, Jan 24 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Umno would institute changes and a renewal to strengthen the party after its new leadership takes over following the party elections in March.

The Umno president said the party would adopt measures aligned to the members' aspirations to become a party with greater integrity and one which served the people in keeping with the pledges made.

Read Abdullah: Changes for new Umno leadership to make

Paklah, thanks for that assurance but please bear in mind, the people are in no mood for a magic show treat. We are not clapping now not because we want to be fooled later. Though we have heard & seen "the pledge", we are about to see the completion of "the turn" but know this, we are not waiting for "the prestige", come this March.

The people want to see changes and they want it to be real.